It’s Sziget Festival time again! Sziget has grown immensely since its start 14 years ago and today is among the leading, if not the largest, music festivals in Europe. The 2006 festival runs from August 9 to 16th on Obudai Island in Budapest and this year visitors can expect a sizzling lineup of 200 international stars, 500 Hungarian bands, performers, DJs, several dozen theatre groups, acrobats, humorists, dancers, puppeteers, and 200 programmes a day at more than 60 locations.
click here to view fullscreenSziget 2006 Media Farm
For the second year in a row Andras Frenyo has assembled an international team of VR photographers who will produce multimedia live from the festival for the Sziget 2006 Media Farm website - including 360 degree interactive panoramas and movies, photographs and video clips – as the event takes place on a Danube island in the heart of the Hungarian capital. Photographers (or “media farmers”) Krisztina Imre of Hungary, Mickael Therer of Belgium and Gilles Vidal of France will be joining Aldo Hoeben of The Netherlands, Bernhard Vogl of Austria and Andras Frenyo of the United States. The team has a Sziget blog up and running where you can keep up-to-date daily.
click here to view fullscreenThe VR community is pitching in big-time this year: most notably, the IVPRA is helping out with the team's out-of-pocket expenses, just the type of support needed to continue carrying out great projects such as this. “This year, I also will open up the shoot for one day, for which I posted an invitation on the Hungarian panoramic community,” Frenyo says. “Sponsors 360precision, PTgui, FieldOfView.com, Photomatix (HDRSoft) and Pano2QTVR, all contributed software to pass on as prizes." They are also getting increased support from the Festival and local companies, and will have a workstation on the island with Internet access to process the images for same day delivery to his website. “We have significant ad space in the official brochure (possibly a cover opportunity) and one of our panoramas will be used on the local streetcars come Aug 1st.". And the ever-resourceful Hoeben has built a kite rig for the creation of aerial panoramas, "1.6 kg of remote controllable fisheye goodness, ready to be lifted". And just to be sure they won’t miss any action, they will also have a tent on the Festival grounds.
Links:
For a great review of past events, visit Sziget 2005: http://www.sziget2005.com/
To explore the city of Budapest via pano, visit: http://www.sziget2006.com/Budapest
Sziget Stages
Sziget offers five international big stages: the Main Stage (Nagyszínpad) with mainstream music, the Pannon World Music Stage (Pannon Világzenei Nagyszínpad) introducing world music, the WAN2 Stage promising diverse styles, the HammerWorld Stage playing hard rock, and the Party Arena with electric music, international performers will also be seen on the Palace of Arts Jazz Stage (M?vészetek Palotája Jazz Színpad). The festival also offers musical, cultural and children programs, and sport events.
Program Details – days, times and headliners: http://www.sziget.hu/fesztival/program2006#h73906
Main Stage Lineup
The Main Stage is an outdoor venue with the capacity of 50,000 people, where three international stars and one of the most well known Hungarian bands appear every day between 4:30pm and 11 pm. The Main Stage schedule has scheduled big acts Radiohead (UK), Franz Ferdinand (UK), Placebo (UK), Ministry (USA), Scissor Sisters (USA), dEUS (BE), The Rasmus (FIN), The Gathering (NL), Jovanotti (I), Gentleman (D), Beatsteaks (D), Guru's Jazzmataz (USA), Gomez (UK), Glen Matlock (UK), Prodigy (UK), Living Colour (USA), Sons and Daughters (UK), Iggy and the Stooges (USA).
Who attends Sziget, you ask? Fans, rockers, hiphopers, weekend warriors, punks, die-hard stoners, metalheadz, party animals, aliens, strangers, indies, tourists, pupils, hitchhikers, parents, kids, newcomers and of course myspacers. Check out Sziget’s MySpace to meet other concert-goers:www.myspace.com/szigetfestival
