It's Starting to Look a Lot Like Sziget

I’ve never been an ace at maths (except scoring awfully well at a machine placed test once, which was either a fluke, or a serious reason to doubt the efficiency of AI for the time being), so I always count the number of ’my Szigets’ on my fingers- suffice to say, by now I always have to restart with a second set of hands. Given this I would say pleasant conundrum, it gets a bit harder each year to do something revolutionary new.

The organizers sometime help by taking ground breaking initiatives, such as making and then taking back stages- or moving them around a bit or introducing new drinks and food to be tested. But since we can’t always abuse their kindness, this year we decided to do something about it ourselves, and went out to the island of the very first moving in day.

There was already quite a bit of Dutch spoken on the HÉV- closely followed by French and Italian, with an unusually high incidence of Turkish as well, you are welcome for this super scientific demographic assessment. The little back alley shortcut towards the island was still open though, so we could skip the grand tour around the car showrooms, which was fortuitous, since I did get lost there several times, though to my defense I have to say that was after both dark and copious amounts of beverages.

The queue was perfectly under control at the ticket exchange points, so the new ID scanning system seems to work well for the time being, though of course the real throngs of Szitizens are yet to arrive. The luggage check was a bit more crowded by the time we finished this edition’s first Sziget investigation, but that is no wonder given the fact that we were basically the only people not hoisting in a tent- for which we were indeed eyed with some suspicion by the security personnel.

Inside the state of things was a mixture of the eerie and the familiar: many stages and stands were still under construction, with both the Dan Panaitescu Main Stage and the A38 stage looking almost ready to rumble, the only food on offer were some pizza slices and only a couple of drinks stands were already open. Coffee was plentiful though- it seems that priorities are clearly set, a tired traveler needs some fuel before pitching the tent. We could however not help but wonder why some people would park their tents right behind a row of toilets when most of the Island is still up for grabs- maybe they didn’t have enough coffee, or maybe they’d had too much.

Somewhat surprisingly or not, because we were on Sziget after all and we all know it's a land of manifold wonders, the first thing I heard cried over the main stage area (in French) was ’Where is the Jack Daniels?!’. In only two days time we’ll all find out where our favourite spots are and Sziget will become the Island of Freedom once more.

The Elusive Snow on Sziget Post

If you follow and read this blog you might now me as the lazy photographer, as I was labeled so by the not so lazy other one. The thing is, I am not lazy I just take it easy maann.

Snow on Sziget, it all began couple of years ago when we decided to take a little hike on the island. Now when you hear Sziget, lots of things come to mind, most of which are very accurate. But random and ordinary are not among those things. And yet, when we went to island that is exactly what it was. A random and ordinary park. Nothing special just people walking their dogs or having a lazy walk on a weekend. I know that was my fault as I had this unreasonable excitement of going to the island. And I knew there would not be any activities or excitement, but still...  one would expect the rest of the 51 weeks to be at least to some degree as exciting as that one magical week!

In the mist of disappointment of ordinary, an idea struck me. To come and photograph every season on Sziget . Lovely autumn scene full of colours and leaves, a snowy winter and lovely spring. (Summer is the festival time so it has already been photographed) And with this thought we have started visiting the island every third month. All accomplished except one small glitch. Winter. Or snow to be more precise, or the lack of it to be absolutely exact!  There was no snowfall in the last three winters. All we had was wet, cold and grey meh. That’s it, just annoying meh for winter. All that until this last weekend. When opportunity finally presented itself as two hours of heavy-ish snowfall.  The next day I have dressed in layers of super protective, heat insulating arctic clothing and ventured off to the wilderness of snowy Sziget.

Now, this was not random and ordinary. Everything and everywhere was covered in white fluff. Everywhere I looked, I remembered hot summer days of magical week and how people would be so carefree enjoying themselves under the hot sun. Where the main stage is, the A38 stage, the world music stage... I could almost see people dancing on the snow in their shorts and swimming suits. Next time I am on Sziget, when I would be looking at people partying like there is no tomorrow, I would be remembering these cold white moments and enjoy the contrast to my bones.