Saturday 12th August, 2006
Sziget. Oh dear, oh wow, oh My sweet fair Sziget. This was my first trip to what has become the festival to hereforth ruin all festivals for me. Sziget is amazing.
'Sziget' is the Hungarian word for 'island'; a ship building island in The Danube river that seperates Buda from Pest is, for one short, sweet, dirty week per year, transformed into a music festival. Well, more than a music festival... Sziget is a parallel word of music and art and culture and people and tents and mud and good clean fun that leaves me pinching myself to think I have really been there and seen that. Thrice.
This was Day Four.
It was also an interesting point in my life and travel. My 'plans' (though I say it laughingly even now, since 'plans' and 'travel' rarely conjunct sweetly) had all gone to utter shit. I was left scratching my head and wondering where to go - the world was my oyster, but on this day the oyster was a bit big and daunting. It happens.
So I had called Mental Health Day... (yeah, you will notice a trend towards these; I highly recommend them). Despite having an island full of madness and a globe full of opportunity, today I decided to call game off, and go to the movies with the girls.
In this instance 'the girls' refers to my childhood friend Brookie (who I was travelling with at the time) and two Dutch girls we had met the day prior at our Sziget hostel, who went on to become my Dutch Angels very soon after and forever since.
It's funny how certain company brings out certain thoughts, certain feelings. Hester and Ines (aforementioned Dutch Angels) met me when I was pretty confused, emotional and vunerable. They are called my Dutch Angels because they were exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it. And this was the day that sealed the deal - at the end of this very week I literally shrugged and said "Well, if you girls are Dutch, I'm coming to Amsterdam!"
James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy runs with the idea that nothing is a coincidence, that everything that happens in your life is connected and happens for a reason. Days like this - people like these - leave me tending to see his point.
From the very get-go I remember walking to the Festival, talking intensely with Ines about my very best friend and how much I loved her. Right back then I remember dancing and laughing and smiling with Hester like we had always been pounding dancefloors together in just such a way....
And if I believe that certain people open you up to new depths of feeling, emotion and fun, then I believe it of music in equally potent measure. This night at Sziget was Radiohead.
Now controversally enough, I would never call myself a Radiohead fan. Musically, lyrically, professionally I have admiration and respect for them. Personally, they make me want to cut my wrists. But this night, although I was apparently ignoring the set, I discovered how raw, powerful music takes you with it, whether you want it to or not.
During this set, being treated to The Lightshow Of My Life, I stood at our meeting point bar with Ines, and we poured our hearts out. We had known each other just over 24 hours, and here I was, gazing into this woman's endless dark eyes, and almost crying with the release of the words that were tumbling out of my mouth.
The music, the company, the island, the magic... it brought tingles to my skin and a shortness to my breath. It does even now, just thinking about it.
(Oh, and here are Radiohead's lights, to give you the visual...)
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