Bringing together around 400 thousand fans from over 70 countries to an island in the heart of the Hungarian capital, Sziget Festival is a week-long non-stop event with around 60 venues and around 200 daily programmes. R.U.T.A., Tsigunz Fanfara Avantura and Warsaw Village Band bust their moves on the scene dedicated to world music.
Warsaw Village Band
A contemporary band updating traditional Polish folk music that has garnered BBC Radio Awards and a Grammy nomination, among a raft of other accolades, Warsaw Village Band is six musicians who got together to record the nearly forgotten sounds of musicians from small Polish villages. With a foundation in traditional Polish music, they create, as the New York Times put it, "cutting vocals, meshed fiddles, trance echoes and eerie percussive sounds".
Other inspirations include Pakistani qawwali master Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, the Sex Pistols, Bob Marley and Mari Boine - the Norwegian musician known for having added jazz and rock to the traditional Sami songs called yoiks, and for playing Muddy Waters. Culture.pl placed Warsaw Village Band on its Top 10 Polish Indie Bands list.
Tsigunz Fanfara Avantura
A seven-piece brass and winds band influenced by gypsy music, Tsigunz Fanfara Avantura's skill and charisma are carrying them also in 2013 to the biggest brass band festival - the Guča trumpet festival, also known as the Dragačevo Assembly, the fierce, festive competition held annually in Serbia.
R.U.T.A.
Short for Movement for Utopia, Transcendence and Anarchy, R.U.T.A. calls itself the Reactionary Terrorist-Artistic Union. The band assembles musicians from opposite sides of the melodic spectrum - punk and folk music, musicians from the Warsaw Village Band, the singer Nasta Niakrasava, Guma from the legendary band Moskwa and Nike from Post Regiment. Creating energetic, engaged music that confronts all limitations, R.U.T.A. is guided in its work by a literary director - the poet Jacek Podsiadło. Referring to the historical plight of underprivileged classes, their music expresses concern about the contemporary social and political situation in the world.
Now entering its 21st edition, the Sziget Festival started in 1993, at which time it only presented Hungarian artists. A year later, 140,000 people came to the festival. The burgeoning number of festivalgoers inspired the organisers to profile Sziget as an event for musicians who had performed at Woodstock: Jefferson Starship, Blood, Sweat and Tears and Eric Burdon from the Animals. Metal, folk, jazz, blues, alternative and even classical tunes: Iggy Pop, Prodigy and David Bowie to Boney M and Run DMC - by 2011, the European Festival Association Yourope called Sziget the Best European Major Festival, while the British newspaper The Independent put it on the list of 10 best European music festivals. Held in Hungary's capital, Sziget is not just about music, offering other cultural programs including theatre, circus and exhibitions.
The festival has live coverage on its official YouTube channel which was watched by about 5 million viewers in 2012.
For more information of the festival see: Sziget
Author: Filip Lech, translated and edited by MJ 16.07.2013