This Italian region now has Europe’s highest Tibetan bridge
It’s not for the faint-hearted
This is the fourth major Hungarian music event to be cancelled because of the pandemic
Sziget Festival, Hungary’s biggest and one of Europe’s largest music and cultural events will not take place this August – for a second year in a row. The festival, which every summer transforms the 108-hectare Danubean island of Óbudai-sziget in northern Budapest into a giant, buzzing beehive, has announced postponement for 2022.
“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,” Tamás Kádár, the festival’s chief organizer said in a statement, quoted by Hungary Today. Kádár added that the two-year dormancy had made life difficult for all actors involved in the event and in the sector, so everybody is “loooking forward to the ’22 festival season like never before.”
Organizers are promising a “grand comeback” in 2022, and have posted a special promotional video on the festival’s official website. In the meantime, they have assured that all purchased tickets and festival extras will be automatically valid for next year’s event. Otherwise, ticket holders can ask for a refund, convert the value of their ticket or sell it to someone else using their Festival Account.
The fate of Sziget Festival seemed predetermined after two large festivals belonging to the same portfolio, Balaton Sound and Volt, had announced roughly a month and a half ago that they would not go ahead this year. Sziget’s announcement came just hours after Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister's Office, had confirmed that only people with immunity certificates would be able to attend concerts and festivals, visit restaurants and hotels and participate in sporting events, at least until August. The possibility that the ban on festivals could only be lifted after 5 million people in Hungary have been vaccinated with at least one shot has apparently played a part in organizers waving the white flag.
Two days before Sziget’s cancellation announcement, rock music-focused FEZEN Festival followed suit. 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 possess the required document yet at the time of the event, meaning they would have to be denied entry, which is “out of the question.”
According to Hungary Today, despite the woes of larger festivals, smaller ones remain upbeat for now, and several of them have already begun selling tickets.
What are the reasons for that and are there any possible solutions for that problem?
Possibly making it the only legislature in the world with a religious temple on-site
It’s not for the faint-hearted
Presenting the next chapter in the Dutch capital’s ‘Stay Away’ campaign aimed at rowdy tourists
The City says this has become a necessity due to the increasing number of incidents involving these vehicles
That way you can notify a canal lock keeper to open the gates so the animals can swim through
The organizers had been considering different Parisian spots, but always with the idea of the flame being visible to the people
Electricity production in that Eastern European country will not release direct CO2 emissions anymore
Possibly making it the only legislature in the world with a religious temple on-site
This initiative is not just about making books more accessible – it has larger ambitions in its sights
We owe the unusual cultural icon to this country in Europe
The country’s capital has been a pioneer in crafting policy and initiatives to improve coexistence between people and pets
Urban dwellers across the EU are having a say in making their surroundings friendlier to people and the environment.
Forests in the EU can help green the European construction industry and bolster a continent-wide push for architectural improvements.
Apply by 10 November and do your part for the transformation of European public spaces
Catch up with some recommendations for the 2024 European Capital of Culture programme from the mayor of Tartu
An interview with the ICLEI regional director for Europe аfter the close of COP28
An interview with a member of the No Hate Speech Network team