Gábor is listening to... 2017/32-33-34

With Sopron's VOLT, the 2017. Hungarian festival season has been officially launched and I am proud to have been there, listening to Imagine Dragons live for the third time.

Furthermore I have visited VeszprémFest (veszpremfest.hu), a cultural wine and world/pop music event where I enjoyed some nice rosé as well as Heather Small live.

Finally this year's Sziget Festival in Budapest celebrated its 25th anniversary, which happened to be my 15th and even though the present blog entry is dated back to the opening day of the festival, I am writing it after Sziget 2017 has ended, as a retrospective of what I have experienced and of what you have missed.

Even though Sziget did not attract as many visitors in 2017 as it did in the last two years, it does not mean that it wasn't worth it. On the contrary. In 2016 people invaded the festival because of Rihanna, causing at least one sold-out day while this year there were still some tickets left for each day. On one hand this automatically means minus 30.000 fans at least, on the other hand it is less crowd, more space.

In 2016, while searching for unoccupied toilettes, I discovered what an incredible music the World Stage offers and what amount of fun there is - as it is less popular and less crowded than other stages. As a result, in 2017 my itinerary was to commute between four stages: Main Stage, A38, World Stage and Europe Stage with undiscovered or rising European artists - a stage I have discovered in 2015.

As the World Stage proved to be quite an experience and a perfect getaway from the crowd of other stages, I lingered there a lot, enjoying the likes of Lajkó Félix, Goran Bregovic, Leningrad, PASO or DakhaBrakha.

Europe Stage offered a lot as well, usually names that most people haven't heard before, however, Finnish singer ALMA had a gig there, too.

As opposed to the above-mentioned, A38 is not an open stage so it can be very hot and steamy inside. This year sweating was provided by The Naked & Famous, GusGus, Fritz Kalkbrenner, HVOB, Flume, Alex Clare, Kensington, Crystal Fighters, Alex Vargas, etc.

Of course the Main Stage is, was, has been and will always be the main stage - the platform of the huge, commercial names, focusing on well- or less well-deserved popularity, attracting the biggest crowd. Because this stage is offering the most on paper, it is most likely to experience disappointment here - as visitors come with huge expectations and sometimes leave without having them fulfilled. This year, however, Kasabian, Two Door Cinema Club, Glass Animals, Hurts, Metronomy, Mando Diao, Tom Odell, Jamie Cullum, White Lies, Biffy Clyro but even Alt-J and Pink have fulfilled - or even topped - (at least) my expectations.

Of course these videos do not fully represent the feeling of being there, however, it is nice to look back, remember and share. If you asked me which concert I had enjoyed the most I really could not tell but some names still make me shiver, for example Jamie Cullum, Alex Vargas, Roosevelt and pretty much of the World Stage in general.

Looking forward to next year, hopefully - and what about you?