T-Pain by Roger Ho for Govenors Ball. Cover image: Benson Boone by Charles Reagan for Governors Ball.

Taking the main stage on Friday evening, T-Pain was definitely a highlight, playing hits like “Buy U a Drank” and “Hey Baby (Drop it to the Floor).” Role Model also came out to the Grove stage to an extremely large crowd all ready to hear his hit “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out”. Role Model brought out Conan Gray to be his “Sally,” and they smooched on stage in the middle of the bridge. Back over on the main stage Mk.Gee gave a fun, atmospheric performance to his fans playing his biggest songs like “Rockman” and “Alesis.”

Benson Boone performed to a crowd absolutely filled with adoring fans, all awaiting his famous backflip. His performance was incredibly earnest, and he seemed to be enjoying himself just as much as his fans. Just last month, Boone performed to even bigger crowds at Coachella, but he brought the same energy and stunning vocals to Queens, NY. To the audience’s delight, he threw out multiple backflips for them and performed his biggest hits, “Beautiful Things” and “In the Stars”!

Left: Benson Boone by Taylor Regulski for Governors Ball. Right: Role Model-Conan Gray by Deanie Chen for Governors Ball.

Conan Gray by Deanie Chen (left) and Paigge Warton (right)for Governors Ball.

Tyler the Creator by Roger Ho (left) and Deanie Chen (right) for Govenors Ball.

Finally, Tyler the Creator took the main stage just as the sun was going down to much excitement and anticipation from the fans. Tyler began his set by performing the first four songs off his latest album, CHROMAKOPIA, released last year, and then ended with some of his biggest hits like “Balloon” and “See You Again”. Tyler gave one of the most enigmatic, dynamic performances of the festival with explosive dance moves and even a huge fireworks display to close out Friday night.

Saturday took a strange turn when the entire day was delayed four hours due to rain and wind, but that didn’t stop music lovers from showing up to support their favourite artists. Sadly, several acts had to be cancelled due to the delay.

Artemas kicked off the afternoon with an angsty set and played his huge hit song from last year, “I like the way you kiss me”. MARINA took the main stage to a huge crowd, most of whom were here lining up early for Olivia Rodrigo. MARINA’s new album, Princess of Power, was released the day before on Friday, and she debuted several songs live, including “Princess of Power” and “I <3 You”.

Marina by Paigge Warton (left) and Anna Downs (right) for Govenors Ball.

Conan Gray was a wonderful opener for Olivia Rodrigo, as most fans know of their close friendship and even encouraged everyone to make sure to stay and watch his friend. He opened with his new track “This Song” and delivered beautiful vocals on each and every one of his tracks. Olivia Rodrigo opened her set with “obsessed” and dazzled the crowd with more tracks from her two albums, Sour and Guts. It was a very family-friendly set, as most of the crowd was filled with kids under fourteen there with their parents. Rodrigo even brought out Talking Heads member David Byrne for a duet of “Burning Down the House”. It was a very fun, bright set to close out a rainy, gloomy day filled with setbacks.

Olivia Rodrigo by Dusana Risovic for Governors Ball.

Sunday was still a little gloomy, but the festival kicked off on schedule to everyone’s delight. RAYE had a particularly sparkling set, performing with a full band and insane vocals. She was all smiles and looked just so happy to be there performing. RAYE was also extremely vocal about how much she appreciated all her fans who came out to see her perform.

The Japanese House went on to a crowd full of cheering fans, opening with “Touching Yourself” and playing other hits like “Something Has to Change” and  “Boyhood”. She shouted out the Queer community and specifically Trans People, letting them know that they are loved and belong.

The final act of Governors Ball, Hozier and his band, closed the festival Sunday evening. He told the crowd he and his band were recovering from a cold, but were happy and ready to perform. No one could even tell because Hozier’s voice was just stunning. Singing through some of his most popular tracks, “Cherry Wine” and “Too Sweet”, and ending with his old hit song “Take Me to Church,” Hozier truly gave a magical final performance.

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First, Sziget isn’t just a music festival, it’s a celebration of art in all its forms, with acts from all genres distributed between the main stage and a tent stage, a newcomer stage close by, and two electronic music venues along countless little stages for performances of all kinds. It’s hard to describe what it really is in just a few words, especially with the recent changes – but it has been known as this magical island of freedom that breathes art around every corner and where the focus has never been on money making … typically.

Image above: Role Model

This year sadly brought some drastic changes to the event. Due to the pandemic and two canceled editions, the organizers faced no support from the government and huge budget cuts as a result. While this is understandable, the cuts were sadly handled in the most unfortunate way and killed the vibe that made this place so extraordinary. In the past, most of the island was free to camp wherever you want. The majority of the campgrounds were under the trees close to the beach with country-related paid campsites and VIP camping including a swimming pool, this now got reversed. Only a tiny part of an undesired part of the island remained free while the paid part got extended enormously and changed location to the area that used to be free. With names like `chill` or `relaxed` people expected peace there but quickly learned their campsites were directly situated next to the party venues that were going on until 5 and 6 AM.

The VIP camp, now called ‘Superstar,’ faced similar issues with its unfortunate loud location and swimming pool people paid for but couldn’t use due to a construction issue the organizers only got notice of 4 weeks prior to the festival. All the decorations have disappeared, even the beach which used to be a hippie heaven turned into a commercialized space that felt more like Tulum than Goa.

Image above: Rufus del Sol

Due to a drought that was affecting all of Europe and resulted in 3 months of nearly no rain in Hungary the ground was so incredibly dry that after day 2 the dust was so bad that even with a mask it was more torture than fun to be around the Main Stage. Water shortage didn’t help, even two weeks after the event many festival goers still complained about respiration issues, on the ground everyone was coughing, many tried to get throat spray and eventually lost their voice.

Another very sour taste, figuratively speaking, were the food prices. While inflation is understandable the fact that food prices doubled since 2019 and the same products cost double of what they did in the city just a 20 min train ride away simply couldn’t be ignored. The selection was also a lot smaller with a minimal amount of healthy options available, the supermarket at the festival was very small for the number of people taking part and before midnight there was always a 30 min queue to get in.

Images below: Nova Twins

On the positive side, the drink prices remained very reasonable and the different high-quality artist installations were still present, a big kudos to all the artists working on them!

On the first day, it was still very busy with people moving in, which resulted in crazy long wait lines. Role Model played the tent and the crowd was very excited, fresh, and ready to rock to this energetic show. Later on Rufus du Sol took the MainStage, it took a bit to get everyone going and as usual with DJ acts there wasn’t much crowd interaction but the night was still young. Nova Twins attracted everyone looking for mosh pits and action, they absolutely burnt the place down and nobody left not convinced that they are an act to keep in mind. The highlight for many was headliner Dua Lipa, and she didn’t disappoint. To end the night, Canadians Cleopatrick played the Europe stage with a solid set that attracted a similar crowd as Nova Twins just a few hours prior. Many people continued to the tribute stage, where rock cover bands played until late and a rock disco was on until 5 AM. In previous years this started right after the main act, but sadly this year it was way later and lost quite a few people due to the delay.

Images below: Cleopatrick

Day two was hot, and people were still up relatively early ready to check out all the different areas the island had to offer. The Gaming Hub was a popular area during the day, offering board games and consoles to bring people together, it has been organized by the same family for the past years and they make sure they offer a wide, ever-changing variety.

The World Stage had artists from all over the globe playing traditional music and right next to it was the Tent Without Borders – a safe space for European refugees and this year the focus was on Ukraine. The tent was home to a special exhibition presented by a French museum and everyone working in the space were refugees themselves.

Later in the afternoon, the programming started on the Europe stage with dutch newcomers The Vices who filled the area in seconds (no surprise with hundreds of Dutch visitors) the band is definitely worth keeping an eye on. While the headliner Kings of Leon sadly was a bit disappointing with no drive and a pretty boring set, Bastille were able to make up for it and offered a great show playing all their hits which matched the festival vibe perfectly.

Image above: The Vices; Images below: Bastille

The next day everything started to get dusty, but that didn’t stop people from coming, yet. Loads of day tickets were sold, which led to a very full venue, even though the island is gigantic and people usually spread really well, this year the space reached its maximum capacity.

Like many acts this year, Viagra Boys canceled their show but The Murder Capital stepped in and offered a banging punk set that treated the crowd to rock vibes that were a bit sparse this year. Belgium superstar Stromae attracted a huge crowd that absolutely went wild while he performed a beautiful show with loads of theatrical elements and a detailed theme.

Image above: Stromae; Image below: The Murder Capital

The main reason, however, for so many guests here today for just the one day was of course Justin Bieber, and loads of young girls already fainted in the heat before the show even started. He played all his hits, and the fans were happy, even though he didn’t seem to enjoy it that much and there wasn’t a ton of crowd engagement.

There was another highlight though and that took place every evening at PM in the Magic Mirror – a venue dedicated to the LGBTQIA+ community. During the day they offered talks on a range of topics, screened movies, and hosted creative performances, the evening programming led to huge queues outside the tent, and rightfully so! Put together by an Australian group a very thoughtful but still frisky burlesque, acrobatic and dance show was performed in the most tasteful way possible. This one stage very possibly would have been worth the price of the ticket.

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Continue your Sziget adventure in the next post: Sziget Festival part two: In the dust we live and dance

The post Sziget Festival part one: The vibe and the energetic start appeared first on Quip Magazine.