2023-07-06 19:44:39
hot, dusty and full: a strenuous day at the “sziget festival” with an up and unfortunately a few downs.
i already visited the sziget festival in 2016 and took home wonderful concert memories. well, in 2022, i/we wanted to go back – inhaler, sam fender, holly humberstone and arctic monkeys in one day sounded too good to be true. so i bought a day ticket for 100 euros – my two lucky festival comrades-in-arms had won tickets. so i hoped that the day was really worthwhile if i was the only one of my festival crew who spent so much money. but I was in good spirits!
traveling directly to the festival worked well, the sun was beating down and we were super motivated. admission was well organized and then we were already on the festival island trying to get our bearings. the goal was very clear: on to the big stages! off to wonderful concerts!
just as we arrived at the main stages and checked the timetable once more, the big shock came: “fender itselfhad canceled his performance at short notice. two hours before the start. a world collapsed for us, because he was actually the main reason for starting this journey. our good mood suddenly vanished – what to do? we decided to go for a long walk and to explore the island, we had time now.
we went to the end of the island, where the “beach area” was. At the same time, our thoughts revolved around the circumstances: it was incredibly hot and therefore also incredibly dusty – hunger and thirst regularly went away, because there was simply a thick layer of dust clinging to it and we really didn’t feel like eating or drinking it. I also remembered everything much more colourful, much more decorated – but somehow there was hardly any decoration on the whole island as it used to be, just dust everywhere. the tents in the forest were all dyed grey-brown, the ground was parched and i was disappointed. disappointed because maybe my expectations of the festival were too high.
eventually we were back at the main stages and ready for the performance of “inhaler” in the tent. the tent was really full and when “inhalers” stormed the stage, the whole thing sounded a bit empty, somehow tinny. i was still able to enjoy the irish group’s gig very much as they really blasted all my favorite songs through the speakers. i felt the songs so much because i had heard them so many times. my world was right once more!
following the concert of “inhaler” i floated on clouds – i was so happy and full of anticipation for the further program. maybe that wasn’t such an optimal starting point: my expectations increased more and more in my euphoric state. when we finally stood in front of the biggest stage at the sziget festival and listened to the songs of “holly humberstone’ listening, my delirium of joy evaporated more and more. together they tried to inspire the huge crowd but almost went under a bit. I remember a lot of chatter during the quiet songs, only when she turned up the volume a bit and drowned out the chatter did people realize that they might get a little crazy.
quite a lot of people flocked to the biggest stage during the performance of “holly humberstone”. everyone present seemed to want to secure a good seat for the main act of the evening – understandable. the constant movement on the dusty ground whirled up the dust massively – at some point it was almost foggy. in combination with the onset of darkness and what felt like millions of fairy lights, it was a strange atmosphere. romance in the desert or something.
and then it started: thearctic monkeys“ stormed the stage, shot us a few old hits and we? we were almost crushed in the spectator area. it was so incredibly narrow and everyone present was so huge. the hits animated the audience to throw their arms in the air and then i was finally aware that i would not see the “arctic monkeys” anymore that evening, only hear them. the only way I might see the group visually was through my cell phone display, but that would be too exhausting in the long run – for me, but also for everyone around me.
the rest of the evening was like this: i “dance” (as far as that was at all possible) in the middle of a huge crowd in a super tight radius to old and new arctic monkey hits, but none of them really wanted to reach me (maybe because of the circumstances?). i had my mask on by now because the dust was getting unbearable and i cried a bit inside because i spent 100 euros for three bands, of which i only really saw, heard and celebrated one. of course, it’s best to have as few expectations as possible and just accept the circumstances, but i like to chase following them, the perfect concert experiences.
at some point i thought it would be a good idea to ask my festival crew to go further back hoping not only to see a lot of backs, but also to see the stage. but that didn’t work – we ended up being further back, further away from the stage, but it was just as tight there and the people were just as tall as in the previous place. so nothing had changed, except that we were further away.
and at some point the concert was over, we made our way to our apartment and we were all a bit sober. we had imagined the whole thing to be much more colourful, much more comfortable and a little more pleasant in terms of temperature. it ended up being an expensive and exhausting day trip.
what did i learn from it? no longer visit a festival for a few bands. and above all, no longer just going somewhere for the arctic monkeys, who really have had their best times. a festival is better when you can let yourself drift and don’t have any fixed points. then the surprises are all the greater, which in the end may even turn into perfect concert experiences.
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#concert #inhaler #holly #humberstone #arctic #monkeys #sziget #festival #15.08.2022