I went last year - was indeed one of the best, craziest festivals i've been to - found it a bit weird that they have separate camping areas for different nationalities though. Also, check out the hot springs in the city, they're well cheap and definitely worth a visit. Oh and try the massive fried bread things covered in cheese - the best heart attack i've ever nearly had! have a wicked time...

why were the campsites split up?! i love a bit of international friendmaking...

There weren't fences or anything, but there were areas for certain nationalities. My mates set up their tents in the German area and were politely asked to leave! There's plenty of other spaces though, and all the hungarians are absolutely wicked...really friendly and absolutely nuts.

Can't say i've witnessed such officious segregation. We've always camped in mixed areas and this year's no different. There are defo a lot of Germans here though - and if I'm woken up from my 3 hour sleep fix by that fecking, god-awful krautopunkpop "Mein Freunden" cd again (underlaced with hint of gaba from the tent beyond) i think i will eat five of those deep fried heart attack inducers and get it done with.

Its also freaking boiling. Dance tent last night was nuts though, esp Vitalic live. You walk in and the sweat falls like rain from the roof before you literally get poached in steam. Awesome stuff.

Big shout to Zagar and the Underground Diva's - the a Hungaro answer to primal scream, madchester and the prodigy all in one keyboard flavoured package! Oh, and if anyone likes their turntablism - check out Bootsie Quartet on Saturday night 19.30 at the Wan2 stage. And what a stage that is.

More to come festi-feinds!

So last night I made my way for a five hour stint in the Mastercard Dance Arena to check the talent before John Digweed filled the empty void left by Carl Cox's sudden, last minute cancellation, due to, er, "family issues".

Before Diggers sets about is pregressionals however, a rather attractive young lady walks up to me. Her name is Lucca, crowned top DJ in here home nation of the Czech Republic and ripping into the international scene. Yet, admittedly with Cox's sudden cancellation she is facing a different crowd than expected for her more minimal, techno-fied 130ish BPM. But naturally, she keeps her calm and dissapears towards the decks looking more than a little sexy (...and that's just after this wandering journo witnessing Sziget's famous wet t-shirt rompetition!)

Petite in size, Lucca quickly establishes that anything she lacks in proportions she easily makes up for in pumping pumping techno music and as the first shrieking crushendo rips over the vast, rammed tent - all lights and steam with a huge Tron-like central cortex pulsating with Dj info and visuals - 'LUCCA' bleeps onto the screens, the on stage groupies begin their "look at me" wiggles and both the penny and the beat drops...

In the middle of the mix I bump into DJ Rocksteady from Hungary's MEMO records, and the man responsible for a rather wikid little party on Day Zero in Mokka Chuka – the neverending home of the island’s after party. (Did I mention this festival is set on an island in the middle of the Danube in the middle of Budapest? Well it is.) Back on Tuesday it was Rocksteady who got the party started after some very cool 7” grooves ont he unofficial Day minus 1. With some back to back turntable action, the beats were flying – holding off the inevitable Metal-rave after party from the near finished Iron Maiden gig as long as possible with some classic drops, wild props, two drunken mixmagers waving flags in his face and a crowd feeling the boistrous mayhem that preceeds a week of ridiculous, body-breaking excess! (Did I mention this festival was a week long and totally bonkers? Well it is.)

Back between the sweaty flaps of the Mastercard dance tent, you’d be forgiven for thinking there was clouds in the arena as it seems that’s where everyone is reaching. One dude is even on his way up the scaffold, lured by the hedonistic urge to climb like a monkey. Don’t lie. You know exactly what i’m talking about. We’ve all done it.

Little did this particular monkeyman realise, that beneath him taking a stance behind a central desk littered with turntables either side, Digweed has blended into his first record with the glossy smoothness of a sun cream cuddle, and before beginning the build, is kicking things off with a big beat. Carl Cox may well have cancelled because there was still too much space left in his cash-sack, but there is more than something to be said for Digweed not only filling in as an obvious replacement, but – in the words of my first Deutsch freundens from back here in 2006 – TO MAKE PARTY JA!

Still on stage, Lucca wiggles her tight, white denim-clad hips to the prog master as with each subtle lift, break and beep he draws the crowd more and more firmly into the palm of his hand. Indeed, a subtle hint of Booka Shade and monkeyman is back, climbing again, the steam intensifying. On the visual front, Lucca brought Trabant testdrive montages before Digweed’s acid smiles and lunar landings, oh and some very 80s version of the very 90s wet T-shirt romp we witnessed earlier. (aaah, boobies :-) But it’s the raving hands, intense coloured lights and gurn-revealing strobes that provide the biggest spectacle, and whilst two stage crew members jubilantly spin their mate around in a wheelie hammock back stage, everyone else is going mental. Then Diggers drops an ecstatic remix of ’Hey Boy Hey Girl’ and the roof blows off.

Indeed – and i say this purely from personal opinion – it just goes to show in an industry where the bullshit can be all too apparent, there is always an equal reaction that brings the best people, punters, DJs and music to the fore, where at the end of the day we’re all here to make party ja? and dance our drunken fucking asses off, spin in a wheelie hammock, or take too many drugs and pretend you’re a monkey.

Did i mention that this place is bloody awesome? Well it is. In fact bollocks to sitting in here any longer, I’m off to play bouncy castle volleyball, find out what the fuck water puppets are and then head to my favourite Wan2 stage for a large helping of DJ Bootsie and his Quartet. (Check him. http://www.myspace.com/djbootsie)

Budafull.

Best festival I ever been to by far, the acts on the main stage were a bit rubbish and on the whole diapointting but some of the stuff going on on the other stages was fantatsic. In particular hats of the the Dutch act Kraak and Smaak, who blew me and a tent full of people away. Vitallic also did a sterling jb in a hot sweaty dance tent - you could just smell the love.

As for the segregation, I camped alongside germans, dutch, french and italians.

safe

NJI