Sziget Festival to offer big discounts, seek gov't aid

Special festival passes for student groups will be available at up to 50 percent discount at this year's Sziget Festival and another new feature will be a separate main stage for Hungarian bands, the event's organisers said on Thursday.

Karoly Gerendai, managing director of the organiser company Sziget, said that the economic crisis is likely to leave its mark on the festival, with many potential sponsors cutting back on spending and fewer people expected to be able to afford visiting the festival. The organisers have been forced to increase the price of daily tickets to 10,000 forints (EUR 29.5) but a variety of special discount will be available, he added.

Student groups will be eligible to discounts on festival passes depending on the size of the group. The highest discount is 50 percent, which can be received for groups of 46 or more. Another discount is that day tickets will be offered half-price after 11 pm, when concerts on the main stages are over.

Concerned about the rise in costs, the organisers have decided to request state funding for this year's event, Gerendai said. The budget of this year's festival is 2.7 billion forints and 5 percent of this has been requested but no reply has been received so far, he said.

In 2007 and 2008, the Sziget Festival did not request any state funding.

The festival will include a new main stage, reserved exclusively for Hungarian bands, and the traditional main stage will be used only by international bands, Gerendai said. As a result, including the World Music stage, there will be three main stages at the event, he added.

Germany, Japan, Israel and Spain will be countries in focus at Sziget 2009. The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 will be remembered with a unique art project and the 20th anniversary of re-establishing diplomatic links between Hungary and Israel will be celebrated at this year's Sziget. Japan will be in focus as part of the ongoing Hungarian-Japanese cultural season and a large number of productions from Catalonia will be in the festival programme.

The 17th Sziget Festival on Obuda Island in northern Budapest will run between August 12 and 17. Headliners confirmed so far include The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Placebo, The Offspring, Snow Patrol and Die Toten Hosen and the final programme will be announced in May.

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