Sziget

Timmins

I don't think they take euros. bring 50 euros in forints or something, then use the ATMs over there! Cheers to Zoveress for this piece of advice!

LeanneF

i had friends that went last year and they just withdrew their cash from the atms at the festival and said they gained a better exchange rate too!but just make sure that wen u are withdrawing that you know exactly how mush euros you want for the florints!!:)

Orions belt

cool zoveress, i hope to see a few off you guys over there. i will get the msn going and we will go for a pint at sziget. i am camping the whole week aswell

Orions belt

also my msn is gar_is (AT) hotmail (DOT) com
if anyone wants to meet up for a drink over there

masherella88

i'm not the best for using msn but my email is masherella88@gmail.com

zoveress

masherella88 wrote: »

i'm not the best for using msn but my email is masherella88@gmail.com

Well I have most of you on MSN now My advice would be to take your irish ATM card and just withdraw money from the ATMs on sziget or in the city... It is however not a bad idea to exchange like 50EUR into Forints just to have cash for taxi or whatever Shops/pubs are not usually taking euros, Forints only I am afraid.

RAWLiNGS

RobertMcRoberts wrote: »

Hey hope this isent a stupid question but do they take euros in budapest?
I know they have the fornit but does anyone know if its advisable to bring some over or is it easy to exchange them over there?

A very few places will accept euro, but most likely you will need forint, preferably in cash... Laser works with most of the ATMs.

I know Hungary very well, so dont hesitate to ask me if you have any questions.

Morzadec

Anyone heading over to Budapest for this one? Second year for me. Really is a great value festival.

Some of the bigger bands playing (taken form Wiki):

Main Stage
IAMX, Nouvelle Vague, Ska-P, Snow Patrol, Lily Allen, Miss Platnum, The Ting Tings, Die Toten Hosen, Bloc Party, Fatboy Slim, Haydamaky, Jet, Primal Scream, Pendulum, The Prodigy, The Subways, Editors, Klaxons, Manic Street Preachers, Placebo, Disco Ensemble, Danko Jones, Maxïmo Park, The Offspring, Faith No More

World Music Main Stage
So Kalmery, Napra, Oi Va Voi, Calexico, 08001, Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club Figli Di Madre Ignota, Zamballarana, Amadou & Mariam Speed Caravan, Woven Hand & Muzsikás, N&SK, Khaled Vieux Farka Touré, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Broterhood of Brass: Boban Markovi? Orkestar + Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars

A38-WAN2 Stage:
Blasted Mechanism, De Staat, La Troba Kung-Fú, Matatu, Miloopa, Muchachito Bombo Infierno, Squarepusher, Tricky, White Lies

Rock Stage:
Backyard Babies, Brujeria, Deathstars, Donots, Expatriate, Life of Agony, Satyricon, Turbonegro

Party Arena:
Armin van Buuren, Birdy Nam Nam, Coldcut, Dillinja, Eric Prydz, Grooverider, Jose Padilla, Paul Oakenfold, Pete Tong, 808 State

LeanneF

RAWLiNGS wrote: »

A very few places will accept euro, but most likely you will need forint, preferably in cash... Laser works with most of the ATMs.

I know Hungary very well, so dont hesitate to ask me if you have any questions.

Thanks for that bit of advice! we wer thinkin of just taking our laser cards and withdrawing money from ATM's at Sziget when we need it!so you def recommend this rather than anything else?! andmost laser cards work?

Your advice is much appreciated!!:D

masherella88

this time next week...we'll all be at Sziget and having a great time...i'm so excited...wish it'd hurry up and get here!!!

how many of you have been talking to Zoveress about camping together?

anyone on the 4pm ryanair flight next monday from dublin airport?

RAWLiNGS

LeanneF wrote: »

Thanks for that bit of advice! we wer thinkin of just taking our laser cards and withdrawing money from ATM's at Sziget when we need it!so you def recommend this rather than anything else?! andmost laser cards work?

Your advice is much appreciated!!:D

Last time when I was there my Laser worked for 3 out of 3 occasions, bring 100-200 EUR with you, when you arrive just exchange it to HUF, just in case, I don't know if small shops bars etc. would accept it, so its good to have some cash with you!

Just one thing to keep in mind; I would avoid using my card in shops or pubs...
Unfortunately a few places (mainly bars) want to rip tourists off, so just watch out for that!

Feel free to ask me!

Orions belt

masherella88 wrote: »

this time next week...we'll all be at Sziget and having a great time...i'm so excited...wish it'd hurry up and get here!!!

how many of you have been talking to Zoveress about camping together?

anyone on the 4pm ryanair flight next monday from dublin airport?

yeah i was talking with Zoveress, sound guy

theboat

Yeah, I'm heading over: first time and I can't wait!
The line up looks great. I'm especially looking forward to the world music and electro stuff.

Any advice as regards getting there, or things to watch out for?

LeanneF

RAWLiNGS wrote: »

Last time when I was there my Laser worked for 3 out of 3 occasions, bring 100-200 EUR with you, when you arrive just exchange it to HUF, just in case, I don't know if small shops bars etc. would accept it, so its good to have some cash with you!

Just one thing to keep in mind; I would avoid using my card in shops or pubs...
Unfortunately a few places (mainly bars) want to rip tourists off, so just watch out for that!

Feel free to ask me!

thats cool thanks! any idea were would be best to exchange the money?kind of have a feeling that the airport would rip us off?

Morzadec

theboat wrote: »

Yeah, I'm heading over: first time and I can't wait!
The line up looks great. I'm especially looking forward to the world music and electro stuff.

Any advice as regards getting there, or things to watch out for?

We were camped out right beside the World Music stage last year and it was great. I'd just pop down there a few times through the day and night and saw some great acts that I'd never heard of.

Getting there is pretty easy, you can get a train from the city, takes rougly 15 mins if I remember correctly. Might have to take a tram to the train station first depending on where you are in Buda but it's all relatively cheap and easy and regular.

I would advise trying to get there as early as you can on the 10th as it fills up quick and there are only a certain amount of good shady spots. We got there at about 6 or 7 in the evening I think last year and we got a pretty decent spot but there was a serious lack of shade. We were up at 8 or 9 in the morning every day so we want to try get a better shaded spot this year. I would aim to try set up camp more around 12 or 1.

The sun is seriously hot there and it can get too much at some stages just to warn, so that's why we're looking for shade. Bring suncream for sure because you will be fried otherwise

Trying to think of other advice...

Don't bother queing for showers because you could be waiting a long time, unless you head down towards late afternoon/evening. If you bring swimming togs you can just head to one of the trough kinda places, fill up a empty pint cup and get a good wash there. There's a good communal feel to it as well, usually a bit of craic! And you seriously have no need for hot water so the cold water there does the job fine.

My other advice would be to make sure you get out a few days and see Budapest because it's a great city and it's nice to take a little break from the festival. Don't try to hit the turkish baths mid-festival, mid-day because they pack out. Ditto, but not to the same extent the water park in Marget-Sziget. But in the first few days before the festival starts it won't be so busy and they're good craic.

It's a great festival, great atmosphere with basically no sign of aggro, loutish behaviour etc... you feel right at home after a couple of days.

Morzadec

Also, with regards alcohol you can not bring any drink into the festival.

But when pints are 1.50e and a pint of wine for 2e this is no biggy money wise.

Vodka drinks are possibly a bit more expensive so if you're a vodka drinker I would suggest buying a large amount from the supermarket and sneaking it in. They don't search that extensively and it's easy enough to sneak in a bottle of vodka, it's probably save you a decent amount of money.

RAWLiNGS

LeanneF wrote: »

thats cool thanks! any idea were would be best to exchange the money?kind of have a feeling that the airport would rip us off?

There are plenty of places around the city, I dont know a specific place. I think the exchange rate is good at the airport. Anything between 258-267 HUF for 1 EUR should be good nowadays.

http://www.sziget.hu/festival/faq#exchangemoney according to this, there will be places to change money at the festival... Ill be heading off to Hungary tomorrow, I'll try to update you with current exchange rates at the airport.

LeanneF

RAWLiNGS wrote: »

There are plenty of places around the city, I dont know a specific place. I think the exchange rate is good at the airport. Anything between 258-267 HUF for 1 EUR should be good nowadays.

http://www.sziget.hu/festival/faq#exchangemoney according to this, there will be places to change money at the festival... Ill be heading off to Hungary tomorrow, I'll try to update you with current exchange rates at the airport.

that would be deadly, cheers!!:)

masherella88

LeanneF wrote: »

thats cool thanks! any idea were would be best to exchange the money?kind of have a feeling that the airport would rip us off?

i don't know what the best place is but i went to bank of ireland today and changed some euros into forints-i wanted to get a hundred euro worth of thembut that would've ended up needing the teller to have coins which she didn't have

so it ended up being €98 something in return for 25000 forints

likealion

Me and a friend going for 2 days in middle of interrailing, dont get there til the 12th though. We f*cked for camping so or what? Should we maybe go back into town to a hostel afterwards?
Can ya get cheap tents over there?

Sorry for all q's. Any help appreciated

Morzadec

Somehow totally missed this thread til now, I started one the other day that got very little response, thought no boardsies were going!

I went last year so this is the second year for me, i would agree with everything that's been said. Such a well run festival, they look after you well. Everything's easy and you feel at home right away.

I wouldn't worry about the showers being cold as you'll be so hot there anyway you'll be glad for it. To be honest the que for the showers is ridiculous. unless you go late afternoon/evening, you could be waiting around in the heat for over an hour, it's not really worth it imo. My advice is bring swimming togs and head down to one of the cold water trough type-things. Bring an empty pint glass and you'll get a perfectly good wash with no waiting around!

Definitely try hit the Turkish Baths, but I would warn you they fill up very quick, especially towards the mid and end of the festival I think. Get there early or just don't bother at all. The water park on Marget-Sziget is great fun as well, good way to spend the afternoon.

I'm flying out tomorrow at 4 from Dublin, so 3 nights boozing in Budapest to warm up for the festival 5 of us on this flight and then 2 joining us in sziget on the 10th. Really can't wait very excited now!

Morzadec

likealion wrote: »

Me and a friend going for 2 days in middle of interrailing, dont get there til the 12th though. We f*cked for camping so or what? Should we maybe go back into town to a hostel afterwards?
Can ya get cheap tents over there?

Sorry for all q's. Any help appreciated

Met up with a few friends last year who only had day passes. They were all just staying in hostels. I'm not sure what the story is with camping with day tickets, I think you might be allowed to stay the night of the 12th but not the night of the 13th (because you wont have a ticket for the 14th if you get me). Not sure on this.

To be honest I reckon hostel is probably your best bet. Theyre cheap enough and there's loads and loads of taxi's queing up outside to take you home whenever you want from what I remember.

You can get very cheap tents over there if you need to though. There's a massive Tesco (can't remember exactly where) where you can pick up a 2 man tent for 8e. Theyre very small though, if it's 2 lads I would advise one each.

By the way there is a thread on sziget in the Gig Buddies sub forum of this that has way more people replying and people who have been to sziget more than me, so might be worth posting there for info.

LeanneF

hey Morzadec!

ders four of us flying out sat to warm up too!!think everyone is very excited!!really cant wait!!:D

hope ya dont mind me askin but what did u do about exchanging money last year??

Morzadec

LeanneF wrote: »

hey Morzadec!

ders four of us flying out sat to warm up too!!think everyone is very excited!!really cant wait!!:D

hope ya dont mind me askin but what did u do about exchanging money last year??

The money thing is no problem. Basically there's no point in stressing over exchanging etc... don't bother bringing out too much in euros. There are ATMs in the festival and you can just withdraw straight from them and the exchange rate is grand as far as I remember. Only thing is I'm pretty sure there's something like a 2.50e charge every time you withdraw. So you're better off withdrawing a decent chunk each time so you won't have to pay this fee too many times. Then again you don't wanna be left with much Florents (sp?) leftover because they are pretty much worthless outside Hungary!

LeanneF

Morzadec wrote: »

The money thing is no problem. Basically there's no point in stressing over exchanging etc... don't bother bringing out too much in euros. There are ATMs in the festival and you can just withdraw straight from them and the exchange rate is grand as far as I remember. Only thing is I'm pretty sure there's something like a 2.50e charge every time you withdraw. So you're better off withdrawing a decent chunk each time so you won't have to pay this fee too many times. Then again you don't wanna be left with much Florents (sp?) leftover because they are pretty much worthless outside Hungary!

ok cool thanks.we wer just gonna bring euros and exchange them at the airport or at Sziget itself i think?? and does anyone have any idea on how much roughly we would need for the week,in euros please?!!

Morzadec

Well with all these things it varies, depending on how much you're willing to spend. Like technichally you could go the whole week without spending a penny on water, but you would be spending a lot of time effort queing up at the water fountain/lugging it back to your tent. Also depends on hpw much you drink/what you drink and whether yous are planning on heading into Budapest for the day.

here's a rough guide to prices from what I can remember:

-Pint of Beer: 1.50e
-Pint of Wine: 2.00e (it's not the best but if you wanna get drunk cheap and quick it's a good choice).
-Small Sandwich: 2e
-Meal: 4.50e
-Bottle of water: 1e
- Coke: 1.50
-Train/tram tickets: 1.50e
-Turkish Baths: 12e
-Water Park on Marget Sziget: 7e

These might be a little off but from what I remember are vaguely correct. as you can see it's relatively cheap. The only way you'll spend a lot on booze is if you buy Vodka drinks/cocktails at the bars because these were closer to the price you'd expect to pay in Ireland, (maybe like 4-5e or something?). You're not allowed to bring any drink in but it's easy enough to smuggle in a bottle of vodka and you'd save yourself some cash by doing that and mixing your own vodka drinks.

So basically on a day in which you don't leave the camp and you don;t spend too extravagently, a 20-25e-a-day budget is reasonable.

But if money was no object you could easily end up spending maybe 50e a day. And if you were really scrounging you could probably do it for 15e maybe ( really depends on how much you eat/drink though!)

LeanneF

thanks sooo much for that, it was really helpful!!:)

likealion

Morzadec wrote: »

Met up with a few friends last year who only had day passes. They were all just staying in hostels. I'm not sure what the story is with camping with day tickets, I think you might be allowed to stay the night of the 12th but not the night of the 13th (because you wont have a ticket for the 14th if you get me). Not sure on this.

To be honest I reckon hostel is probably your best bet. Theyre cheap enough and there's loads and loads of taxi's queing up outside to take you home whenever you want from what I remember.

You can get very cheap tents over there if you need to though. There's a massive Tesco (can't remember exactly where) where you can pick up a 2 man tent for 8e. Theyre very small though, if it's 2 lads I would advise one each.

By the way there is a thread on sziget in the Gig Buddies sub forum of this that has way more people replying and people who have been to sziget more than me, so might be worth posting there for info.

Cheers, much appreciated

RAWLiNGS

LeanneF wrote: »

thanks sooo much for that, it was really helpful!!:)

Hey. Just arrived yesterday. You can change one euro for 238 at the airport. In the city you get 262 huf for one euro. Its ****in Warm here so dont forget to bring ur shorts with you

btw everything still cheap, went to pub had 10 pint loads of shots and ended up payin 40 euro, haha its damn cheap

matrina2641

Im flying out on monday at 11 with ryanair to prague, lots of debate whether we should run and barely make (or miss) the bus to budapest and after realising that 7hours later on a bus we would still have to find our way to sziget and pitch our tents find our friends etc we decided to stay in prague for a night and gt the early bus on tuesday morning...if theres anyone else doing that let me know and we can all meet up or stay in the same hostel in prague..speaking of which is there any hostels people recommend?

oh are there many mosquitos..those a**holes love me and i cant bear that many bites!!

is there places to wash clothes and charge phones etc? im so excited but nervous it being my first sziget.. anyway anyone doing same as us in prague let us know!!