Back a good cause at the NGO Island
A semi-circular line of tents surrounds a sun-splashed clearing that hosts an array of independent organisations, where abundant activities encourage festival crowds to back important initiatives. Get your voice heard for a sustainable environment by creating banners at Greenpeace, plant a flower to benefit a homeless shelter with the local Életrevaló Egyesület or provide support for a child’s future through the Foundation for Africa. Drug-prevention and anti-smoking campaigns also feature to promote a healthier lifestyle.
Don’t give up at XS Land
Have you ever wondered how people with disabilities lead their daily lives, what challenges they face and how they usually need to improvise? A creatively constructed ability park puts people with limited mobility and those who live with visual and other impairment in the spotlight. Here, anyone can try and sit in a wheelchair to traverse a track made of wooden panels, made more difficult with slopes and uphill sections. With both eyes covered and holding a white cane, you can try to find your way out of a blind maze. You can also play ball games or do boulder climbing, all while being blindfolded, of course.
Enjoy splendid circus and theatre shows
At the Cirque du Sziget tent, you can enjoy top-quality performances by acts from Africa to Hungary. While the outdoor stage offers the opportunity to become a part of the show, inside the big tent, you can sit back and enjoy the artists, acrobats and jugglers.
To see something extraordinary, gaze the starry sky every night at 11:15pm. Executed by the Wired Aerial Theatre, As The World Tipped shows artists hanging above your head, telling a powerful tale of ecological crisis. Combining dramatic film and visuals with live performance, As The World Tipped touches on one of the most pressing issues for the planet, with a sprinkle of humour and many emotions.
Get a dose of culture at the Museum Quarter
Discover the best Budapest museums without leaving the island, all showcased at their own tents within a peaceful Sziget zone for culture and arts. A giant board game set up by the Hungarian National Museum gives you a user-friendly introduction to the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. Do you feel underdressed for Sziget? At the Museum of Ethnography, you can don any of the many decorative apparels of ethnicities around the world. At the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, female festival Szitizens can strike a pose for a photo wall called #WomenofSziget. Set up by a vintage Ikarus bus and a blue Trabant car, the Hungarian Museum of Technology and Transport offers multiple designs to create your own T-shirt or postcard.
Get cosy by the campfire
After sundown and when main concert performances are over, anyone can warm themselves by gathering around a giant campfire, started every night at 11pm. As festival scenes get wild around the party tents, you can just kick back and take a break around the open fire, while lounge and acoustic tunes play in the background.
Get crafty at the Artzone
Within the Artzone, local creatives offer workshops and opportunities to put together your own crafts in five minutes. As Budapest’s biggest exhibition at the moment is Frida Kahlo at the Hungarian National Gallery, the HNG tent has gone Kahlo crazy. You can create bright paintings, badges and tote bags here, all inspired by the revered Mexican artist. At the Technika tent, you can paint colourful patterns on wood, while a few tents along, you can carve a tiny sculpture. You can also try your hand at embroidery, braiding together different materials, sewing and various forms of painting. If you happen to bring a shirt with you, you can draw your own stencil and create an imaginative design with spray paint.
Get hitched at the Wedding tent
A charming robot couple guards the heart-shaped entrance of this understated shelter, home to Sziget’s most romantic vows. This is the festival’s returning wedding-tent attraction, where you can tie the knot with anyone (or anything). Have you just met the love of your life in the crowd? Or do you want to marry your best friend, a random Szitizen, perhaps your beer or yourself? All you need to do is buy the ring(s), say “I do” and sign your Sziget marriage certificate. And if your change your mind the next day, sorry, there are no official facilities across the festival site to arrange a divorce.
Make a wish at Before I die…
If you have wishes and dreams to share, visit this massive blackboard, pick a chalk in any colour and finish the sentence: “Before I die…” with your own thoughts. This community art projact has travelled the world, and now awaits visitors to Sziget to share their biggest dreams. As a novelty this year, on one side of the board, Szitizens have the chance to record a ten-second message about their hopes and plans – the most creative will be broadcast overnight.
Relax at the Sziget Beach and Cökxpon Chill Garden
When the burning sun gets a bit too much, head for Sziget’s own beach resort in the northern corner of the island. Here you can cool down sitting in the shallow waters or chilling out at the beach. The swim zone is fenced off and quite small, but just big enough for a quick dip. Right next to Sziget Beach, the Cökxpon Chill Garden is enhanced with colourful soft carpets, snake pillows, enchanting lights, soothing psychedelic tunes and intoxicating aromas.
Rock the boat at Cruisin
Even though Sziget offers so many fantastic attractions, anyone who wishes to take the festival out onto the open water can discover Budapest’s breathtaking panorama on an electronica-infused excursion of open-air revelry aboard the festival’s party boat. Cruisin sets sail into the heart of the city every day until the festival ends. Partygoers can board the boat at Buda’s Szilágyi Dezső tér by Batthyány tér between 10am and 10:45am, or from the festival site between noon and 1pm, to embark on a rocking afternoon-long breezy ride. Top DJs spin the discs, while drinks are served from several bars. A ticket is €34, and CITYPASS holders receive a €10 discount. There are only a few tickets left, so check the website for more details.
Throw your hat in the ring at a travelling funfair
This returning Sziget site tests the agility of Szitizens, who venture into a vintage amusement park, where target shooting with nuts and a hat-throwing game evoke 19th-century funfair scenes. You can watch it all from above, while riding the park’s downsized Ferris wheel, best enjoyed when it’s illuminated at night. If you have time between concert shows, it’s worth joining the slow-paced queue in front of a mysterious tent, temporary home to a grey-haired travelling fortune teller, who can read your mind with his secret abilities and cards.
