Culture

Budapest Sziget Festival generates good profit

by Yuliya Talmazan | August 23, 2008 at 06:55 pm

637 views | 17 Recommendations | 8 comments

It is not often that we hear about festivals that actually generate money here in North America. Usually, festival organizers run into big dept, scrambling to at least break even. It is “normal” to make no profit in the first couple of years because every festival needs branding in order to be financially successful. And, branding takes time. Once the festival becomes a catch-name, it will attract its viewership and hopefully make profit.

Running since 1993, the Sziget Festival in Europe has come full circle. It started off as a low-profile student event but matured into one of the best European rock festivals. The festival always enjoyed great attendance, but this year it is also breaking financial records.

The company said that a total of 385,000 people had attended the week-long musical extravaganza located on an island in the Danube in Budapest, which was one of the largest music and cultural festivals in Europe. Sziget said that its investment of more than 100 million forints (about 421,000 euros) to increase capacities on the island had contributed significantly to the profitability of the festival, held between August 12 and 18.

The company added that 50,000 people had attended the Hungarian song day held on the day before the official kickoff of the de facto festival, which preliminary data suggests will push up total event profit by several million forints.

Budapest is known as a festival city in the same league as England’s Glastonbury and Denmark’s Roskilde.

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TomDoom

at 01:39 on August 24th, 2008

The Sziget Festival is not only about music. Sure, there are lots of international stars that play on dozens of stages, but the overall sziget experience is much more. There are theater performances, acrobats (KITONB), art installations (Luminarium) and possibly the best and diverse food offering of any festival I know of.

TomDoom has contributed a photo to this story.

viviantheindian

at 03:41 on August 24th, 2008

I definitely agree, and I think anyone who likes music and culture (and food!!) should attend.

atraz

at 04:26 on August 24th, 2008

The Sziget Festival is a fantastic experience. You can find people from everywhere and you can sharing their opinions. I think I'll come back in the next years...

atraz has contributed a photo to this story.

mr-mojo-risin

at 06:13 on August 24th, 2008

The atmosphere on the Obudai Sziget is really amazing, people from all over Europe gather for a peaceful party and a shipload of fun! The commercial aspect is definitely not a significant aspect of this festival , though it may guarantee the survival of this thrilling and stunning event.

The diversity, the individual character, total uniqueness and the good vibrations should be emphasized. For me, this year was my third time and I surely will join it next year again!
CYA there in 2009!

mr-mojo-risin

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:14 on August 24th, 2008

Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:28 on August 24th, 2008

yuls.source, I like this story. It's good stuff.

frala.

at 08:11 on August 24th, 2008

It was a great experience... I tried to capture the wonderful atmosphere that there was in my pictures, even though it wasn't easy. You have to experience the sounds, the lights, the people and still it will be hard to tell it! Great festival and well organized.

frala. has contributed a photo to this story.