One of the events that had only been on the periphery of my consciousness, was the Sziget Festival. I'm not a festival person, never have been really, and I have to admit that I'd never heard about it until I started to look for hostels in Budapest - I soon realised that there was a reason that they were all nearly fully booked.
The festival takes place in early August (this year it was the second week of August) on a small island in the north of Budapest and it's huge - apparently approximately 400,000 people attended this year. It's also very expensive - 45 euros for a day ticket, and then 140-200 euros for the week, depending on whether you camp on the island and when you buy. There are though lots of really big names who play there - this year they had: Prince, Good Charlotte, Pulp, Skunk Anansie, Kate Nash, The Prodigy, Kaiser Chiefs, Manic Street Preachers, and lots more. That was just on the Rock-Pop stage - they have lots of different stages to suit your mood.
I would've liked to go for the day, but I couldn't really afford to go and sadly that seems to be the case for most Hungarians too - it's become very commercial, very international, and therefore very expensive. And for some reason I kept meeting Dutch people going to the festival.
Anyway, if you're a festival person and want to experience it while you're here, you can find more information here: www.sziget.hu
