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Sziget Festival attracts record 565,000

This year’s Sziget Festival in Budapest, which formally closed on Wednesday, attracted an all-time record of 565,000 visitors, organisers said.

The previous record was set in 2016, when the Sziget Festival attracted 496,000 visitors. On Tuesday, the festival received its 9 millionth visitor since its start 26 years ago.

Chief organiser Tamás Kádár said earlier that this year’s festival cost one billion forints (EUR 3m) more than in 2017, while a further increase of 500 million forints was planned for the next event. Kádár declined to mention names, but said that they were planning to invite performers that will “certainly attract large numbers” next year, too.

Among the headliners at this year’s festival were Kendrick Lamar, Gorillaz, Lana Del Ray, Mumford and Sons, Dua Lipa, Kygo and Arctic Monkeys. Headliners for next year’s festival could be announced as soon as next month, the organisers said. Meanwhile the Budapest police headquarters (BRFK) has said that the crime rate was significantly down at this year’s Sziget Festival compared to last year. Police made 34 arrests during the 10-day event, most of which were drug-related, BRFK said on its website. Police arrested 45 people at last year’s festival.