Record attendance at Sziget festival

Budapest – Hungary’s six-day Sziget pop and world music festival this year attracted a record 390,000 visitors, organisers said Monday.

Lily Allen, The Offspring, Primal Scream and Amadou and Mariam were among 200 acts to appear at what has become one of Europe’s biggest summer festivals, held on Hajogyari island on the Danube in Budapest.

"During the five days of the festival proper plus Minus One day, with a Hungarian concert, altogether 390,000 people came to the Sziget, which is an all-time record," festival spokeswoman Viktoria Veto told AFP.

More foreigners came to the event than in previous years, in particular from the Netherlands, France and Italy, the spokeswoman said.

"The busiest day was Friday, when the island reached its full capacity of 70,000 people," Veto said. British bands Primal Scream and The Prodigy and Malian singers Amadou and Mariam appeared that day.

British techno star Fatboy Slim, French bossa nova band Nouvelle Vague and the punk-ska formation N&SK were also at Sziget.

This year’s event, which had a HUF-2.65-billion (EUR-9.69-million, CHF-14.7-million) budget, was "sure to yield a higher profit than the HUF 100 million last year," Veto said, although she was not able to give more precise figures yet.

A post-festival clean-up started after the last main concert on Sunday and would last two weeks, the spokeswoman added.

AFP / Expatica