I was lucky to see the Sziget festival in Budapest for the first time and was totally amazed. For everyone who wants to experience a proper old-fashioned pop/rock festival in every possible sense – Sziget is your place to go. Endless days and nights good quality music, totally wild and crazy audience with human pyramids and crowd surfing and the best festival security I’ve ever seen. The line up for Saturday (and looks that for the other days as well) was extremely good. It was an honor for Mika to be a headliner and he seemed to enjoy it.

The first act called Enter Shikari played hard alternative rock with a very strong attitude and even though I wouldn’t listen to something like that at home I loved experiencing their show which could easily be compared a roller coaster ride. They had a mad fan base bouncing around the venue and first I was really afraid to be in front row but their crazy fans were actually very respectful and obviously tried to be very careful not to harm anyone. The security was amazing and incredibly smiling. They patiently helped dozens and dozens of crowd surfers and gently walked them out holding their hands. Never seen anything like that and for the first time ever at concerts or festivals I loved watching the security guy in front of me and genuinely thought he made me feel safe. Awesome work.

The second act The Fratellis was like a relaxed break between the other two intensive shows before Mika and my favorite of these three acts. Not really special or super entertaining but still pleasant rock’n roll and gave me time to have a little rest, listen and dance. Very much enjoyed their performance. The third band was called The Editors and they seemed to be very popular at Sziget. Good quality music and professional stage performing but a bit too adult and mainstream for my taste. The audience loved them and jumped and screamed using a lot of energy and looked already a bit tired when Mika finally started and it made me almost worried and to tell the truth Relax wasn’t as energetic and good start as it usually is.

The situation like that is only a challenge to an artist like Mika and took only a couple of songs from the audience to totally warm up for his show. I knew it would happen, the Sziget audience was a fantastic element for a great gig and he did one of his best festival performances. He added some very suitable extra details like an exciting dance ending for Origin and a fierce Make You Happy part before sitting in front of the piano for Happy Ending and I loved them both. Emily/EMD was more relaxed and energetic than last time I saw it, very much liked it and Live Your Life as well for the same reason. Underwater was simply super powerful. I loved the show and felt lucky to be there and was happy I decided to include Sziget in my plans.