There’s no obsessive trend following, no over-styled hipster aesthetics, no gold-foil influencer points. Instead, there’s sunsets over the Tisza, beer on the grass, a mate who never comes to a gig but is there now, and a community where everyone lets loose a little.
The festival itself takes place in the heart of Szeged, in the Partfürdő area, so it has a very unique atmosphere: it’s like you’re not in a city of your own, but just getting to know a particularly cool side of the city. In the morning, you can pop into the city centre for a coffee, in the afternoon you can swim in the pools, and in the evening, life kicks off on several stages at once. All in one place – a logistical dream.
On the music front, SZIN strikes a fine balance between popular and more quality light music. In terms of Hungarian acts, of course, it brings the „must-haves” – Halott Pénz, Azahriah, Krúbi, Margaret Island, Bagossy Brothers, Follow the Flow – but what we really love is that it doesn’t rely on just those. There’s always one or two foreign headliners whose names are surprising, but that’s what makes it exciting: there’s Example, Netsky, Wilkinson, Lost Frequencies, and many other faces that don’t get booed from the outside, but do after the show.
But what makes SZIN special is the timing. At the end of August, when most festivals have become a tired memory, SZIN is still there, embracing summer as if it doesn’t want to let go. It’s like the last dance with a slow number – and who wouldn’t want to relive it?
And it’s not just the music that matters here. There’s something homey about SZIN: the tents, the chill zones, the run-ins with long-lost faces, the spontaneous socialising on the grass, the cycling NGOs, the colourful installations, the smell of water that wafts through the neighbourhood in the evening. Here you really believe it makes sense to slow down and just watch the sky play with the last colours of summer.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that SZIN is a kind of closing ceremony: it’s not boisterous, it doesn’t push you to think that this is the greatest thing that could happen to you – but at the end you still feel like you’ve been in on something really good. And maybe that’s what makes it more.
