SPRING | COVER FEATURE
Across its events last year , 356 Entertainment was responsible for attracting 56,000 visitors to the island , who collectively made 22,400 hotel bookings during the festival season .
“ The island has become a beacon for travellers seeking more than just a traditional holiday experience , and we are proud to continue to realise these expectations and provide memorable festival experiences for our visitors ,” says 356 director Trevor Camilleri .
The six-day , 95,000-capacity , Sziget Festival in Hungary is another event that has huge pulling power when it comes to attracting tourists .
One of the biggest festivals in Europe , Sziget (‘ Island ’ in Hungarian ) is held in northern Budapest , on Óbudai-sziget ¬– a 108-hectare island on the Danube . More than 1,000 performances take place each year ,
Sziget Festival
with last year ’ s headliners including David Guetta , Billie Eilish , Florence and The Machine , and Lorde . That edition of the Superstruct Entertainment-owned festival welcomed more than 420,000 fans , with artists from 62 countries performing across more than 50 stages .
Sziget ’ s booking & production manager Márk Bóna says , “ Around 50 % of attendees come from other countries , with The Netherlands being the top source of foreign visitors followed by France and Italy . We are seeing less people coming from Spain , possibly due to rising travel costs .”
Operating an event of such a huge scale clearly comes at a significant price and that has risen sharply recently . Says Bóna , “ It ’ s a big issue . Not only has the production costs and the artist fees risen but labour costs have gone up sharply too . The recent change to the taxation system in Hungary for freelancers means that they are now having to pay around one third of their income in tax . I cannot increase my fee by the same amount . The workforce is more expensive , catering is more expensive ; so we have to save some money where we can and that is partly why we are losing a stage this year .”
Instead of having a poporientated stage and another for tribute acts , the lineup will be merged on the one stage this year . “ It ’ s really hard to have smaller stages and fulfil their needs unless they are very successful . It costs a lot of money to have a stage with the programme , the catering , the crew , the facilities for the bands . So , if we by cutting one stage it ’ s a significant amount of money saved ,” says Bóna .
With around 50 stages to programme , it ’ s perhaps unsurprising , given the current industry-wide trend , that Bóna is having to work harder than usual to book the line-up : “ It is tough right now , we are struggling with headliners . We have three headliners confirmed but we are still looking for others . The issue with headliners now is that they want to do headline stadium shows because they can earn much more money , with a fixed fee . So it ’ s tough for festivals .”
There are festivals that still sell out in less than a day but for the vast majority of festivals this year , there are major challenges to negotiate , and clearly those with the strongest relationship with suppliers and support from government and local authorities are best placed to weather the storm caused by the pandemic ’ s impact on behaviour , soaring costs and a dearth of available talent .
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