DAY 3 AT SZIGET: DAMP BUT NOT DISHEARTENED: BY GREG DOREY, BRITISH AMBASSADOR, BUDAPEST
As you can see from my colleagues’ blogs, Friday was a wet morning at Sziget. But things improved in the afternoon and the weekend forecast is for sun. It will be hot, hot, hot - so if you’re visiting use sun screen and drink lots of water.
Visiting the temporary police post for a press conference with the foreign police in the morning was a reassuring reminder of how much hard work the Hungarians put into ensuring that the site is as crime-free as possible (and there has never been a serious violent crime here in 17 years). CCTV covers quite a lot of the site these days. Some 125 crimes had been reported since the start of this year’s festival and of those only about 7 or 8 involved UK citizens. Cutting slits in tents and lifting valuables (even with the owners asleep inside) is a favourite trick. It really does sound as if most British visitors are taking all the right precautions.
Media coverage of what we are doing here has been excellent this week - almost universally positive - and interest in “Music Against Racism” (ZARE) continues (I did a 15 minute interview on the subject on radio earlier). Copious informal feedback from Embassy contacts congratulating us is encouraging. There is an impressive number of ZARE tee-shirts, badges and wrist bands around the site.
I didn’t stay for the music today - Primal Scream and Prodigy are more my children’s taste than mine. But it’s evidence that there is something for everyone here - no less than 13 stages running simultaneously for most of the day, including the Main Stage (on which every single band is British tomorrow afternoon and evening!).
