Between the 7th and the 12th of August, Sziget Festival hosted its 30th edition in the iconic Budapest location on Óbuda Island. Sziget 2024 was a truly international festival and welcomed an average of 65,000 fans per day from over 100 countries. Once more, Sziget becomes Hungary’s 10th largest city. With 50 stages dotted around the Óbuda island, Sziget featured more than 1,000 shows including some of the hottest international talent like Kylie, Stormzy, Sam Smith, Halsey, Fred Again..., RAYE, Janelle Monáe, Skrillex, Overmono, Nia Archives, Tom Odell, Becky Hill, Fontaines D.C. amongst others.

Over the past three decades, Sziget and its audience have created an international community known around the world as The Island of Freedom. Under this name, the festival becomes, year after year, a haven for love, acceptance and freedom, where every attendee can find a safe space to be themselves. Thousands of ‘Szitizens’ from over 100 countries attended the 2024 edition to partake in the ultimate culture exploration trip across the festival's expansive six-day programme, offering an array of multi-genre styles, theatre, comedy, art, insightful panels, art workshops, and more. 

Tom Odell continues to be Another Love

British singer Tom Odell exploded into the spotlight on day one of the festival with his debut EP, ‘Songs from Another Love’ in 2012. Since then he has released five additional albums, his latest album ‘Black Friday’ was released earlier this year.  

Tom Odell returns to Sziget Festival this year (2024) and his set this evening electrified the crowd. Stating that Sziget was “The best festival in the world.”, his love of the festival was clear and the crowd welcomed him with open arms. The set list was a perfect mix of his well-known love ballads and songs that got the crowd involved in a call and response when he played the chorus of ‘Fighting Fire With Fire’.

Another stand-out moment came when Tom leapt up onto the piano and punched the air only to dramatically jump to the ground in time with the build-up of the music. The final song was ‘Another Love’, a song that is lyrically beautiful and delivered with emotional rawness. It seems that Tom wanted to put more emphasis on his current music than his 2013 hit. Whilst some of his new singles lend themselves well to dancing with punchy guitar riffs and drums, the audience was moved by Tom Odell’s lyrical storytelling which will always remain his stand-out quality as an artist.

Kylie Minogue: sequins, streamers and pop perfection

Kylie Minogue is a pop icon for all generations and is particularly celebrated in the LGBTQ+ community. The first song I downloaded on my MP3 player was ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’, which provided a perfect backdrop for bus journeys growing up. Kylie is so effortlessly cool and sensual that you can’t help but love her music; the outfits, the glitz and the glamour are all part of the Kylie magic.

Kylie’s dance-pop anthems dominated the 1990s to 2000s, but her latest album ‘Tension’ is a relaxed, but sensual and sex-fuelled album. Kylie appeared on stage in a black sequin dress and the titular track of her latest album was the opening song of the night, where Kylie urges her lover to not be shy and touch her right there. The tempo is turned down with ‘Slow’, which is then sped up to reach a crescendo. At this point, there is no way you cannot mention Kylie’s backing dancers. In their metallic latex bodysuits, they were phenomenal to watch and provided the crowd with dance breaks while Kylie changed into her next outfit: a red frilly jumpsuit with sky-high heels. 

The middle section of the show felt like classic Kylie, and the cheesier side of her discography including ‘The Locomotion’ and ‘Spinning Around’ were played and were well received by the crowd. Kylie performed these hits with an infectious energy that got the crowd dancing. 

As the show drew to a close, Kylie started to play ‘Padam Padam’, which is now an official Pride anthem and has been the earworm of the summer. Streamers were pumped into the crowd as the final song ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ started playing. At the age of 56, Kylie’s fame has outlasted that of many pop stars, and she continues to be an inspiration for many artists.

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Heather Gosling is a university student currently studying English Literature at York. She is passionate about journalism, creative writing and music. She has written for many online and print publications and is working on a music magazine (@circulationzine).