Two of Hungary’s summer festivals, Sziget Festival in Budapest and Strand Festival, held along the shores of Lake Balaton, have both announced even more world starts to their 2018 line-ups, including the long-awaited indie-rock band, Arctic Monkeys and returning American rock band, Thirty Seconds To Mars.
The Budapest-based festival had already dropped a few names and headliners, including Kendrick Lamar, Mumford and Sons and Kygo. The headline appearance from Arctic Monkeys comes amid expectations that the group will release their sixth album in 2018. This is the first tour of the British band since 2014, when they also performed at VOLT Festival in Hungary. The British band will appear on the main stage on 14th August.
This year’s Sziget Festival, also known as the Island of Freedom, will take place between 8-15 August, on the Hajógyári Island in the middle of Budapest. Early Bird tickets are available until January 31st at 6 p.m.
As for the Zamárdi-based Strand Festival, Thirty Seconds To Mars and the 21-year-old French DJ, Kungs will join to the previously announced Robin Schulz, SIGALA and Ákos. Jared Leto and his band, who will publish their fifth album this year, have already performed on almost all major festivals in Hungary, including VOLT Festival in Sopron and Sziget. This year’s Strand festival will be held between 22-25 August.
Last summer, around 450,000 people attended the 25th Sziget Festival. Hungary Today also spent time on the Island of Freedom, rocking out with incredible Chinese-Mongolian rock stars, wandering through a surreal inflated playground and, perhaps least memorably, watching Iggy Azalea dial it in. We also learned more about what goes into running such a colossal musical endeavor through an interview with one of Sziget’s chief organizers.
via szigetfestival.com, strandfesztival.com