15 things you need to know before you go to Sziget

You don’t want to read this intro, do you?

Of course you don’t! You have a TikTok account! Your attention span has been reduced to that of a gnat with borderline personality disorder! So, if we can all agree that this really rather rambling prelude isn’t such, we’ll get right to the point:

You’re considering heading to Sziget. You want to know what you need to know. Keep reading. Here’s everything you should know before going to Sziget, in Hungary, to party Hungarian-style.

1. Getting to Sziget will be a piece of piss

Sure, when leaving the UK, you’ll be faced with an obligatory airport security ordeal and the natural two-hour RyanAir delay. But the good news is: the Hungarians awaiting you know what’s what.

Unlike their British counterparts, Hungarians don’t faff about getting you through passport control. Indeed, following touchdown, the Beats Club were exiting the airport within twenty minutes (which would’ve been quicker but, of course, Brexit means Brexit). And once you’re outside the airport, you can jump on the specially laid-on Sziget Express bus to go direct to the fest.

If it so happens, however, that you’ve arrived at an unfortunate time and face a lengthy wait, you can always get to Sziget via public transport. Just ask someone official-looking for help. They’ll chuck you on Budapest’s official airport shuttle bus – a ticket was in the region of £4 one way – and tell you exactly where you should change to get to Sziget.

It’s alarmingly easy. Which begs the question – why is the UK so alarmingly shit?

2. Almost everyone you’ll need to liaise with will speak excellent English

The Bristol Beats Club, being the arrogant idiots we are, were frantically Googling the Hungarian for ‘hello’ on our arrival in Budapest. Apparently, we thought knowing that and ‘hogy vagy’ (‘how are you’) would see us through.

We needn’t have bothered.

And that’s because everyone at Sziget festival speaks excellent English. In fact, it’s not going too far to say English is Sziget’s official language: signs are in English; ‘Szitzens’ converse in English; artists interact with the crowds in multiple languages (most prominently in English). This is, of course, a sad state of affairs. But it’s bloody convenient. And the policy extends outside of Sziget festival itself, too. So if you need help at the airport, or fancy seeing some of Budapest while you’re in Hungary, you’re golden. You’ll be able to talk to almost anyone in English.

3. You should really see some of Budapest while you’re there

It’s easy to leave the festival and get to central Budapest. There’s a train that picks you up just outside Sziget’s gates. It costs about a quid one-way and whisks you to the city’s bustling heart in minutes.

And it turns out, as a city, Budapest is bloody beautiful! There’s the mad architecture, proper gothic, always beautiful. There’s the cleanliness. There’s the friendliness. There’s the ruinous bars and there’s the thermal spas. There’s the accessibility: a bunch of the sights are ‘downtown’ and walking between em is easy enough.

Bringing this all together, of course, is this kinda pulsating vibe. Budapest is a city to which people flock. People want to be there. Happy, smiling people, having a good time. Don’t get us wrong: there’s that at the festival in spades. But, with Sziget being six days long, stay in Budapest for at least seven and see some of the city once the festival wraps. No matter how hungover you might be on that seventh day, we can assure you, seeing Budapest is a move you won’t regret.

4. Thermal spas cure even the most brutal hangovers

Thermals spas are, essentially, a collection of saunas, steam rooms and pools heated by thermal springs bubbling up from the ground below. And Budapest has a load of em!

If, at Sziget, you’ve overdone it the night before, for around £25, head to a thermal spa for an hour or two.

You’ll sweat out all those toxins and leave right as rain.

5. The Sziget CityPass will make your life a hell of a lot easier

The Sziget CityPass is a big old public transport ticket with a few extras thrown in. It covers all your subway rides, train rides, bus rides and tram rides while you’re here. (And, for maximum enjoyment, you’ll use all of the above.) It also covers getting to and from the airport, and it covers you for this boat they have that runs from Sziget to the city centre. AND you can hit up a thermal spa for free.

You’ll balk at the price of the CityPass at first. It costs around £45 for six days. That put us off. In hindsight, though, if you’re staying in the city, you can expect to spend more than £20 on public transport (it’ll cost you £4 getting to and from the festival every day, and you’ll need to get to and from the airport, too) and a thermal spa is £25 to get in. That makes the CityPass a money saver. If we were not such rank amateurs, we’d have realised.

We’d also have spent much less time standing in fucking ticket queues.

6. Accommodation in Budapest is inexpensive

UK readers might find the prospect odd but, at Sziget, camping isn’t necessarily the norm. Plenty of people do camp. But, equally, plenty of people stay in Budapest, too.

We opted for a mixture: a few nights camping; a few nights in an AirBnB. We booked a place in town (any place close to one of the city’s subways or trams will do), for three nights, for two people, for the princely sum of £180. For those not quite there yet, that’s £30 per person per night.

We were, of course, expecting this place to be a proper shithole – but we were wrong. A decent size. A fully equipped kitchen. A decent shower. Air con – it was everything we needed, centrally, for £30 a night.

Sure, our host suggested we lock the door even when in the flat as a ‘safety precaution’, but it was still only £30 a night. For the air con alone, the place was worth it.

7. Sziget is beautifully sunny and hot

For those of us used to the downpours and mudpools of Reading and Leeds, the idea of a festival in the sun probably seems unthinkable… but for years, in the height of summer, Sziget has treated its Szitizens with delightful weather.

You won’t need a jumper at night. Or, if camping, a sleeping bag.

You’re better off investing in a foil blanket to reflect the morning sun from your tent. It’s great.

8. You can sunbathe and swim at the Sziget beach and chill zone

We actually found this quite pertinent information pretty hard to ascertain before we made the trip to Sziget. That could be cause, a while back, a dip in the river on which Sziget is based – the Danube – was out of the question. In simple terms, the Danube was filled with shit. To such an extent, we were once told, if we even placed one toe in the Danube, we’d immediately vomit and probably shit ourselves, too. A two toed-dip constituted a medical emergency. But, Beats Clubbers, the Danubian settlers have cleaned the place up!

Where it was once a biohazard, the Danube is now perfectly safe to swim in!

And at Sziget, in heat approaching 40°C, swimming and sunbathing are two activities in which you’ll want to partake. So head on down to the beach, swimmers and towel in tow.

There’s a chilled out stage more or less on the beach, too. Which means you’ll never be too far from the blissful action.

9. You can camp anywhere… but probably shouldn’t

It’s true. Once through the festival gates, at Sziget, you can camp anywhere. Most guidance suggests you look for a spot that might afford you some shade, ideally a fair way away from any walkways and, if you plan on sleeping, not too close to any of the multitude of stages.

People respond to this advice in odd ways, typically clustering in small groups sporadically that makes their meagre settlement look at best vulnerable to nomadic urination and, at worst, akin to a bunch of travelling gypsies.

The way we see it, you have a few options. If you’ve got the cash, you can upgrade to one of the swanky campsites.

From what we could tell, the best of these upgrades afforded you lots of space, shade, and the opportunity to mingle with the festival’s most beautiful people. The apparent downside, of course, is these sections are segregated. That means you have no control over where they are. And that means, usually, you’re gonna be closer to the omnipresent thumping music than you’d like.

Here at the Beats Club, largely cause we couldn’t be bothered to walk very far when we entered with our paltry case, we ended up chucking our tent in the first spot we noticed in what Sziget festival have marked out as ‘basic camping’. You pay nothing extra for this. What you do get, however, is to be amongst a whole bunch of other tents, in a spot that is far enough away from the Yettel Colosseum to afford you the opportunity – if you so wish – to seize a few hours of fitful slumber when your inevitable inebriation renders your motor skills moot. Would recommend. 5 stars.

10. The Yettel Colosseum will play the same song on loop

At least, that’s what it sounded like to us. Every time we walked past the damn thing. Oos-ticha-ess-ticha-oos-ticha-ess-ticha. Over. And over. And over again. Lost my parcel then, when asked for a replacement, sent me someone else’s first-born child. Would not recommend. 1 star.

11. Sziget’s facilities are absolutely glorious

While frolicking at Sziget, one of your correspondents mentioned to the other he’d showered at every festival he’d ever been to. “Really?” came the response. “Does Glasto even have showers?!”

And that’s what we’re used to in the UK: facilities so poor some question their entire existence. Sziget’s facilities, however, are on the other end of the spectrum.

Their toilets flush. Flush! They’re never out of soap. Or loo roll, either.

Meanwhile, showers aren’t just clean; queues are minimal. And while a few of the gents shower curtains did rather mysteriously disappear as the festival went on, water temperatures were always in the goldilocks zone.

Plus, for all those interested in touching up their body paint, Sziget offers these cool little dressing stations with mirror and plugs – via which many Szitizens were only too happy to straighten their hair.

Bottom line – Sziget isn’t the gross stuff you’re used to. Posh pampering is very much the Szigetian zeitgeist.

12. You might want to pack yourself a mask

We know they went out of fashion post covid vaccine but, at Sziget, those who don face masks aren’t attempting to ward off diseases. Instead, they’re battling a downside of the hot and sunny weather: a lot of dust.

Hundreds of thousands of Szitizens make it to Sziget every year. While we were there, we saw not even a sign – let alone a drop – of rain. And, try as Sziget’s staff might to keep the place fresh (Sziget staff quite literally water the walkways) it’s inevitable: all the dancing and revelry kicks up a whole lot of dust. 

Few actually bother packing or wearing masks. But a handful do. And, by day 6, you get the sense that the former are probably envious.

13. You can order a glass of ice

The moment we discovered this on Sziget Day 6?

Game. Changer.

As we mentioned above, Sziget is sunny and hot. Drinks warm quickly. But you can – and should – ask the lovely bartenders for a glass of ice when ordering. 

That way, as opposed to having to choose between downing a mojito in minutes or sipping on a glass of warm lime juice and rum, you can keep your drinks cool over time. As we said, uncovering the bewitchery was a proper gamechanger.

While some bartenders handed us our ice for free, others charged us a few pennies. In 30-degree heat, we were always happy to pay.

14. Food and drinks aren’t always cheap… but budget friendly offerings exist

For some reason, we thought food and drinks would be inexpensive at Sziget. Pre-fest, one of us seemed adamant we were looking at £2.50 a pint. That wasn’t the case. Cans of Dreher, we found, were the cheapest option, at a bit under £4 a throw. If you’re doing the full six-days, be prepared.

Meanwhile, the street food at Sziget is absolutely plentiful. But single dishes can set you back upwards of ten quid. Especially if, like the Beats Club, you struggle to convert HUF to pounds. (We never quite worked out what the F in HUF stood for, so just referred to the Hungarian currency as ‘HUF’ throughout. Because HUF, we can all agree, is an excellent currency name.)

Despite some setbacks, every Szigetian food stall is mandated to offer a wallet-friendly option (at the time of writing no more than 2500 HUF – a bit more than £5). There’s also an Aldi on site, with what they call a ‘grill’ outside. So you can get yourself, like, a chicken leg, or whatever, and take it over to the grill. Ask the staff manning the grill to BBQ it. Wait. Then tuck into your dinner, cave-person style.

15. It’s not all about the line up

Sziget’s line up is legendary. Still, believe us when we say, Sziget is not entirely about the line up.

Don’t get us wrong. There are going to be big acts that you’ll absolutely want to see. And you should. But what you won’t appreciate until you get there is all of the other fun shit that goes on at Sziget. 

There’s the local music. And the world music. And the stuff you haven’t heard of and simply stumble on by accident. 

There’s the comedy, and the talks, and the theatre, and the circus.

Probably best of all are what Sziget deem ‘walkabouts’… which are essentially acts that ditch the stage and bounce around the festival playing nomadically. And they’re really, really bloody good. 

If you can help it, leave space in your plans for serendipitous spontaneity. At Sziget, we promise you, you won’t regret it.

We’ll probably add to this list as time goes on

For now, though, we’re capping it at 15.

Of course, we’ll have to remember to change this outro if we do update the list in future… and, as we write this, we’re pretty sure we’ll forget. So if you’re reading this and wondering why we’re going on about capping our list of 62 things you should know before you go to Sziget at 15, consider your curiosity sated.

Love you long time!

Bristol Beats Xx