Competing Festivals Swipe Sziget Headliners in 2015 2015 line up A38 Stage headliner main Stage programme Sziget 2015 sziget festival Sziget News May 14, 2015April 14, 201642 Although the budget of the Sziget Festival has grown to 4.4 billion HUF (over $16 million or 14 million euros) the current list of headliners to participate at this year’s edition might not be as great as expected, the festival’s organizers announced in a press conference today. Last year the festival’s date was pushed back to avoid overlapping with major US and Japanese festivals. This year the above mentioned events will start later as well. This means that the organizers of Sziget might again be in trouble. Still, according to lead organizer Gerendai Károly, the interest in the festival is unbroken after last year’s over 400,000 visitors. “Headliners are no longer enough to make a festival attractive”, he said. “We are improving the visuals, the infrastructure, the hygiene, the public lighting, many venues will be moved to new locations, and we will move the Main Stage, so the audience will have more space”. This year’s visuals will cost about 1 million euros this year, and the number of programmes will grow over 1 thousand. Gerendai told the press that the Sziget Festival is the biggest tourist attraction of Hungary – it’s bigger than the Hungarian F1 grand prix. Over 90% of the tickets are sold outside the country, and the number of visitors arriving to Hungary for the event is three times as big as those coming to see the F1. Former / new program manager Kardos József has returned to the Sziget staff after six years, replacing Szép Fruzsina who has left to work at a Berlin festival. He also spoke at the press event – he told the press about the introduction of genre zones, which might even make some programmes more popular. “The Culture Zone will be strengthened, with the Fidelio Stage, that will be the home to opera, symphonic music and jazz, but this area will house the theater and dance tents, the movable fun-fair, several street theaters, the Hungaricum Village that replaces the afro-latin-reggae village, and the barn dance hall (táncház), but the museum district also moves in here, where 17 institutions have already confirmed their presence,” he said. The Fidelio will feature acts like the CrossOper performance, the Opera Sitcom, the jazz performance of Abraham Brody and Harcsa Veronika, among others. The theater and dance stage will house performances of the world-famous Japanese dancer and choreographer Hiroaki Umeda, the Cuban Danz Abierta group, the French Compagnie MimH or the Israeli IdanSharabi & Dancers. Among the international acts at the Cirque du Sziget, the popular circus venue, we’ll be able to see the French group Akoreaco perform their act called Klaxon, the Czech group Cirk La Putyka and the Hungarian troupe Grotesque Gimnastics. The other venues of the event will include a Creative Zone with a logic tent and TEDx workshops, a Design Area with a Design Terminal and WAMP vendors, an ArtZone with artists and artisans, a Sports Zone with a series of sports opportunities, and an Electronic Zone. The World Music Stage moves to the former spot of the circus, and will have a richer lineup (and a bigger budget) this year. The A38 Stage will house performances from artists like Dropkick Murphys, Enter Shikari, Gaslight Anthem, Infected Mushrooms, Interpol and José Gonzalez. The Petofi Rádió – Telekom VOLT Festival stage will be “inhabited” by acts like the winners of this year’s Nagy-Szín-Pad talent show, along with Péterfy Bori & Love Band, Kistehén, Carbonfools, Kiscsillag, Magashegyi Underground, Wellhello, Bin-Jip Erik Truffazzal, Fábián Juli & Zoohacker, Vad Fruttik, hiperkarma or 30Y. Share on Facebook Share Share on TwitterTweet Share on Pinterest Share Share on LinkedIn Share Share on Digg Share
as long as this is the mindset, sziget never will be a good festival. “Headliners are no longer enough to make a festival attractive”
Interpol playing A38. That free’s up another slot on the main stage. It looks worrying but there are still some very good mainstage acts around europe that week, they may need to push the budget more towards these artists. the A38 by previous years has a great line up so far with acts i definitely will be going to see. They may have sold a lot of tickets so far but the next announce will need to be big, as anybody waivering will back out based on current news. All the same i have my ticket for the 5th year in a row. Looking forward to it. The ‘Vibe’ is great and makes you go back but after 4 years the line up is now pretty important to me. No doubt a great week will be had anyway but we do all have higher expectations when it comes to the festival rated Number 1 last year.
Saturday night there’s a show in Paris in which they will determine which amateur band will play the Europe Stage. Sziget France said that there will be an “exclusive surprise” after saying “we know that you are waiting for names”. Maybe a french band or artist? I’d love it to be Naaman (reggae)!
Would any other festival dare say that they messed up their dates so they couldn’t book headliners? It’s a joke. Either it’s a joke before they’ve actually booked headliners and are hiding it or it’s a joke because you should not be able to get away with saying stuff like that. Do customers get part of their money back because of the lack of said headliners? I mean, if the festival is paying out less money, shouldn’t they? It raises too many questions, and I’m not even bothered about headline bands really.
Using the site posted before I’ve combined the days and stages (not for all the bands, just for the bigger ones and the ones my group may be interested in): Wednesday- Main- Alt-J, Gogol Bordello Tent- SBTRKT, Tyler the Creator Telecom Arena- Jaguar Skills Colosseum- Gui Boratto, Michael Mayer World Stage- Boban i Marko Thursday- Main- Ellie Goulding, Foals, Maccabees Tent- High Contrast, Interpol Colosseum- Dixon Friday- Friday- Main- Avicii, Kasabian, Marina & the Diamonds, Awolnation Tent- Dropkicks, Gaslight, Subways Colosseum- Dettmann and Function Saturday- Main- Hollywood Undead Tent- Paloma Faith, Nero Telekom Arena- Alesso Colosseum- Vitalic, Ellen Allien Sunday- Main- Martin Garrix, Limp Bizkit Tent- Passenger, Jose Gonzalez Colosseum- Damian Lazarus Saturday and Sunday are genuinely terrible. Wed-Fri is actually pretty decent for me. Based on that, eight main stage acts TBA? That seems a lot.
I like the new announcement, very clear, very sziget. Ive been going for the last 6 years and there is always the same negative discussion about lineup. Many people on this forum have been many times and understand that sziget is one massive party whatever the lineup, i welcome the improvements to visuals and the movement of venues. There is enough on the lineup already for a great time with much more to be announced. only improvement i would suggest is to introduce an large indie/rock disco at night as another alternative to the dance music stages. another idea is to have increased number of paycard points on day -1 and day 0 to reduce the queue when you arrive. ANOTHER IDEA – e when you pick up your wristband they hand you a card with 1000ft on it so you can get a beer before you queue to top up FOR THE FIRST TIME. it could be that when you top up the first time you pay the 1000Ft as well as the amount you want to top up.
@Eddie Wednesday and Friday are the best for me too! I don’t think that Sziget France would have the chance to announce Daft Punk (don’t even dream). It’s probably not even a headliner but we never know (not sure if it’s/he’s/she’s french).
I was basing this on a guy in the last feed saying there’s a bigger rapper than Kendrick coming, so you’ve got like Kanye, Jay-Z, Snoop, Eminem, Dre? None of the others seem feasible. He plays in the US on the 15th though so he’d have to be early in the week.
@why i remember you saying that linkin park will come for SURE so stop talking bullshit please… about that huge rap artist: no, it’s not snoop dogg 🙁 bigger, but i wouldn’t say better
@drone: at this point your information is no more valid that why’s. where did you see or hear about this big rap artists? bigger than snoop dog leaves three rappers in my mind: eminem, jay-z, and kanye. so which is it? if you know then surely you can provide us with an actual hint? or are you just saying a “big rap artist” non specifically in the hopes you’ll get lucky and be right? you’re no better than “why” unless you give us proof that you’re legit!
Even if they announce Kanye, they won’t have a rock headliner at a 5-day music festival with a history of rock headliners. It’s understandable.
I am of the opinion that the press release today was done to ease the pain of the realization that this year’s sziget will not be last year’s sziget. last year had a bunch of massive acts that were worthy of headliner positions. this year it is not so. so, they do a press release, make everyone think the lineup is doomed, and then surprise everyone with at least a couple more big names. it makes absolutely no sense if they have nothing big left to announce… they have been silent for a month and ticket prices just went up…. if anyone actually thinks they’d make that press release without a strategy in mind, right after increasing ticket prices, I think you’re mistaken. they have something at least mediocre up their sleeve
Well it’s a fairly strong hint given that three of the names aren’t touring and the other one is in the States haha. What are your credentials? Why should we believe you? I have to say, I’d much rather see Kendrick than Kanye. I’d probably watch Kanye out of interest, but I’d be lying if I said I’d be in any way excited by the prospect.
yah… no reason to believe anything you say. you’re likely a Kanye west fan who has convinced themselves that he’s 100% coming. if he was gonna come they would be making a bigger deal out of it, like they did out of the announcement that Robbie was playing day-1
Just offer Linkin Park some extra money to come to Europe a few days earlier. I can’t imagine that the current line up for Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday took a lot of money. The festival definitely needs at least one decent rock band. Kings of Leon might also be a possibility or maybe a British band (easier travelling).
The Strokes would be my choice. Playing two one off festivals this summer in Europe. Surely if Primavera can get them Sziget can?
If they get the strokes I’m sure like me that will make a lot of people very happy. I wouldn’t care after that.
i really don’t care if you believe me or not, wait and see 😀 btw i really don’t like kanye or drake, but i have never said that one of my favourites will come
@drone : How could you just have informations about this huge rap act in particular ? Did you also know the others names before they were announced? i don’t remember you claiming that before ! Do you have an inside source in the sziget staff or what ?
Not so stupid and unbelievable. Kanye cancelled his tour with rihanna so that’s probably the reason of this late booking. He’s got no proper tour at the moment so we can expect anything from him
What about Of Monsters and Men? They have a concert in Europe just after the end of Sziget, I bet they wouldn’t ask for that much money, furthermore they’ve got a new album that is about to be published. Another huge improvement to the line-up would be if they manage to get Mumford & Sons, it’s the first year they’re touring after their two-years-long hiatus and they just made a new album too: they would be perfect!
Mumford & Sons are in the States during Sziget. Kanye would be the epitaph of this year’s lineup to me (I repeat: TO ME) http://www.nme.com/news/kanye-west/83773
Of Monsters And Men would be a very good addition. No chances of Mumford unfortunately. As for Kanye, I will probably be elsewhere.
I’d love to see Of Monsters and Men, but they are in the US until 16, last day of Sziget, so no chances for this year 🙁
Get royal blood! Great band! As for the rapper id prefer to see J Cole, seen him and kendrick and j Coles way better, still a big fan of kendricks!
