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In case you needed it, we have the official confirmation that there will be no Hammer World Stage at Sziget Festival 2009. This article in Hammer World magazine (it’s in Hungarian) confirms this. The article says that they have been notified by the Sziget organizers that there will be no no Hammer World Stage. There is also some good news. The organizers said that, according to the festival’s new structure, the metal bands, Hungarian as well as foreign, will play at some of the other stages.

The article also says that the decision is somewhat understandable, as much less people showed up at the afternoon and early evening Hammer World Stage performances in the last two years. The whole article can be read here.

Szigetnews friend Mellowmaniac has gathered another list of possible acts for this year’s Sziget Festival, a list gathered taking into account that FM4 has announced a part of their line-up, and there usually are a lot of bands at FM4 that play Sziget, too. Here’s what he has for us this time:

Ready for some more speculations?
FM4 just announced 11 new bands of their lineup. Usually a lot of the bands playing at FM4 are also on Sziget.
New bands are some already confirmed for Sziget:

• Bloc Party
• Ska-P
• Ting Tings

some german bands of who I (as german) hope to see none at Sziget:

• Peter Fox
• Mia
• Selig
• Polarkreis 18

and some international acts:

• Heater Nova
• Anti-Flag (at Sziget 2008)
• Eagles of Death Metal (at Sziget 2007)
• Kasabian (announced for Sziget 2008, but then canceled)

The only band I really would like to see is Kasabian.

Also many of the V-Festival rumours are now confirmed.
There are already 3 bands confirmed for Sziget and V (Fatboy Slim, Pendulum and Ting Tings) and a lot of amazing V-Festival bands I’d like to see at Sziget (The Specials, Lily Allen, Happy Mondays, The Wombats, James, The Enemy, MGMT) – pick your own favorites… there are lots to pick from!

It is now 100% sure, The Offspring will play Sziget Festival 2009′s Main Stage, as the official Sziget press newsletter states. (thanks again to our reader Mellowmaniac).

The newsletter doesn’t confirm any new names, but it says that Tankcsapda will certainly play on Day -1 of the Festival, August 10.

Another day, another headliner announced. After we’ve complained of a lack of artist names for this year’s Sziget Festival, it looks like the announcements come one after the other. The Dutch official Sziget Festival site lists The Offspring among the headliners for this year’s Sziget Festival.

Boy, do we have great news for you today! The official Hungarian Sziget site has confirmed quite a few important acts for this year’s Sziget Festival. Here we go, then. First of all, The Prodigy will present their new album, “Invaders Must Die”, at this year’s Sziget Festival. So will Placebo, you’ll get to hear “The Battle For The Sun” first hand.

The Party Arena will be very animated this year, too, as Armin van Buuren will be making you all dance. Pendulum (that Szigetnews told you about first) are also 100% confirmed, so is DJ Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim.

The list of big names doesn’t stop here. The Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club will also be at Sziget Festival 2009.

But that’s not at all everything. There are more official names for this year’ Sziget, all announced at once. First, there’s Tankcsapda – the legendary Hungarian band will celebrate its 20th birthday on the “minus-1″ day of the Sziget Festival.

Then we have the very much-requested Ska-P, but also Bloc Party and the Ting Tings. They will be joined by Calexico,  So Kalmery, 08001, Figli di Madre Ignota and Tiken Jah Fakoly (that we already told you about).

We’ve linked each name with their official site, to make it easier for you to check out the artists you don’t already know.

P.S.: with all the excitement, we forgot to list The Klaxons. They’re also confirmed for this year’s Sziget Festival.

The French Sziget Festival official site’s stages page only confirms something we all heard in the last few weeks. There will be no metal, or Hammer stage, as it was called, at this year’s Sziget Festival. The stage where Avantasia performed in 2008 and bands like Within Temptation, Napalm Death or Hammerfall made their fans happy two years ago will be no more.

What do you guys think about this? Is it a good decision? Will it make some people pass on this year’s Sziget Festival?

More good news for reggae fans coming to Sziget Festival 2009 – Tiken Jah Fakoly, one of the important artists of African reggae music, has confirmed his presence at the Festival. Tiken Jah Fakoly comes from the Ivory Coast and his music speaks about the injustices done to the people of his country and to people all over Africa. He has been living in exile, especially in Mali, for the last few years and has been declared persona non grata in Senegal for criticizing president Abdoulaye Wade.

Tiken Jah’s presence at this year’s Sziget Festival is officially confirmed on his MySpace. Ras Jumbo, whose presence we announced yesterday, will probably be playing bass in Tiken Jah Fakoly’s band, like he did on his last album.

Here’s some good news for all of you reggae fans coming to Sziget Festival this year. Veteran reggae bass player Ras Jumbo will play Sziget Festival this year. His presence is confirmed on his MySpace page. Ras Jumbo will play Sziget on August 16.

Israelian act Oy Division, a band playing the old-style folk music of East-European Jews (more widely known as Klezmer), have confirmed their presence at Sziget Festival 2009. Oy Division are a band that try to play the pre-war Jewish music the way it has been originally performed, not modernising it in any way. They also have a new album out.

According to their MySpace page, “their repertoire is a mix of instrumental wedding dance music, folk songs and songs originating in the Yiddish theatre, Old music played again with the zeal and exuberance of punks.” That sounds quite interesting, doesn’t it?

Oy Division will play Sziget Festival 2009 on August 16.

At least that’s what a user on the Sziget Festival 2009 Last.fm page says. He quotes the band’s guitarist (he is talking about Dean Rosenzweig, we presume), whose exact words were “IAMX are definitely playing at Sziget”. We hope this confirms 100 % real soon.

In case you didn’t know, IAMX are the solo project of Chris Corner, best known for his work with Sneaker Pimps.