SZIGET 2009 Press release
Sziget 2009 12-17 Aug 2009, Budapest, Hungary

Sziget 2009 - Rock on the Sziget

The great thing about Sziget - our favourite festival - is that while at one particular spot the party is swinging, somewhere else the crowd is grooving to the sound of world music. In another corner, the audience is spellbound by a street theatre performance, and yet elsewhere, it's international Roma music that's seducing the crowd. And still, there are many more different stages and plethora music styles to tune into. It's all happening during the second week of August 2009.

Of course, there will be no shortage of rock music either on the Sziget. Bands will be thrashing out on the main stage, trashing the rock stage, shaking the A38-Wan2 stage and there will be plenty of twist and shout going down on many more stages. Even on the -1 Day, the Main Stage will be the realm of the rockers when Hungarian band Tankcsapda, who celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, will give the biggest and most spectacular gig in their long history. The set list will consist of classic tracks stretching back across their two decades of existence.

It goes without saying that the main stage will keep on rocking for the whole week. The likes of: the recently reformed Faith No More; Placebo, who raised the darker side of the glam wave into popular culture; and The Offspring, labelled as one of the most successful punk bands of all time, require little introduction.

Furthermore, the Main Stage will host: Glasgow-based Northern-Irish Snow Patrol, who opened for U2 on their No Line On The Horizon world tour; Bloc Party, the most successful British indie band of the post millennium years; the Manic Street Preachers, one of the most indefinable bands of popular culture; Klaxons, Great Britain's extravagant acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk band; and Glasgow's pride, Primal Scream. And just to shortlist other key names of the rock line-up on the main stage: I AM X, Maxïmo Park, Die Toten Hosen, Danko Jones, JET, The Ting Tings, Editors, The Subways and Disco Ensemble. So there will be loads of Rock ‘n’ Roll on the Main Stage, as well as on another stage solely dedicated to the genre. The MTV Headbangers Ball Rock stage will be housed in a big tent where Hungarian and international metal, punk, hardcore, pop-rock, hard-rock, blues and indie bands will perform. Australian indie band The Expatriate, whose debut album In the Midst of This came out in 2007, will play in Hungary for the first time at this year's Sziget while one of Germany’s most popular punk rock bands, the Donots, will bring their latest offering, Coma Chameleon, to this year's Sziget. Cleansing themselves of their dark forces, Satyricon, who in 2008 took an industrial metal, Nine Inch Nails like turn, will haunt us with their latest Age Of Neroval album. On this year's Sziget the audience can cross paths with the Norwegian band that revolutionized hard rock under the name of Turbonegro, once again. Life of Agony, the Brooklyn heavy metal ensemble who are currently hard at work on their fifth studio album; and the Deathstars, those black diamonds shining high in the dark sky of industrial metal, will be creating mayhem on the 17th Sziget, as well.

The punk line-up on this year’s festival will be brightened up by Backyard Babies, the Swedish new-wave cum glam-punk band, who with their 2002 Stockholm Syndrome album won a Grammy Award back home. While working on their fourth album, Brujeria is getting ready to launch another musical offensive on the metal battlefield of the Sziget. Further acts on the A38-Wan2 Stage include White Lies, the trendiest UK indie band. On the same stage, Dutch hopefuls De Staat can prove in front of the Hungarian audience why they were chosen by the most popular radio DJ in the Netherlands as the band of 2009.

Budapest, 2009, July 22nd

Gergo Salamon, Sziget Cultural Management http://www.szigetfestival.com




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