Tamás Kádár, the organizer of the Sziget Festival, has expressed satisfaction with this year's attendance of some 420,000 festival-goers, despite it falling short of last year's figures by around 30,000.
Kádár told MTI on Wednesday that last year’s crowd of 450,000 had been the result of increased demand for festivals after the pandemic. “The two-year hiatus generated huge excitement in Europe for entertainment, so when people could go partying again in 2022, masses of people showed up everywhere,” Kádár said. “Last year’s Sziget was attended by many who had bought their tickets at the end of 2019, and then had to wait nearly three years, but they came anyway.” Kádár could not yet say whether the event had made a profit, noting that the total revenue would depend on a number of additional factors, such as catering revenue. This year’s event had no sold-out days, though Friday, headlined by Imagine Dragons, and Tuesday with Billie Eilish came close, he said, adding that each day was headlined by at least one global star artist. He said Sziget had been working since 2018 to book Billie Eilish for the festival. Concerning next year’s event, Kádár said organizers aimed to sell more full festival passes than day tickets.