Sziget has become the fourth major Hungarian festival to announce postponement for 2022. Organizers promise that the event will be back in 2022 in its “full glory.”
“With sadness in our hearts … seeing the amount of uncertainty around travelling, accommodation and the domestic and international role of immunity certificates, we have made the decision to prepare for next year’s Sziget instead,” the festival’s chief organizer said in a statement. Tamás Kádár said the two-year period without a festival had made life difficult for all actors involved in the event and in the sector. “So we look forward to the ’22 festival season like never before,” Kádár added.
Organizers also said they were hoping to schedule programs for 2022 that would be worthy of the “grand comeback” the festival planned to make. They released a video promising that the festival would be back in its full glory in 2022.
This is the second time in a row that festival-goers are left without Hungary’s biggest festival. While organizers have been hesitating thus far with a final announcement, many of them foresaw this sad outcome, after two large festivals belonging to the same portfolio, Balaton Sound and Volt, had announced postponement roughly a month and a half ago.
Sziget’s announcement came just hours after the government’s confirmation that immunity certificates would continue to be required to attend concerts and festivals, to use catering or hotel services and to participate in sporting events, at least until August. The announcement that the ban on festivals remains and will only be lifted after at least 5 million people in Hungary have received their first shot — which, based on the figures since Saturday, will likely be reached in a few weeks — has also surely played a huge part in the organizers’ decision.
Two days before Sziget, rock music-focused FEZEN Festival also announced postponement. In addition to the usual uncertainties, FEZEN organizers also pointed at the immunity certificate misery, arguing that some of the festival’s participants surely wouldn’t have their document yet at the time of the event, meaning they would have to be excluded, which is “something that cannot happen.”
As we reported, while larger festivals are indeed struggling, smaller ones have tended to remain positive for now, and several of them have confirmed their intention to go ahead with their plans, beginning the sale of their tickets accordingly.
featured image via Márton Mónus/MTI