Coca-Cola SZIN Festival kicked off with full house
The 2023 Coca-Cola SZIN Festival opened its doors on Wednesday, August 23 at the Szeged Partfürdő.
SZIN, the Szegedi Ifjúsági Napok — Szeged Youth Days in English — celebrates its 55th anniversary this year and offers more than 200 programs over four days. Throughout the event, four international stars and nearly 190 Hungarian performers take to the stages at more than ten locations.
SZIN, organized for the first time in 1968, was the first music festival of this kind in Hungary where anyone could really be free, even if just for a few days — a rare opportunity during the socialist era. The organizers wish to keep this tradition in 2023 and beyond and continue to promote the SZIN as a festival of music, freedom, and love.
International guest stars at the 2023 Coca-Cola SZIN Festival
Similarly to previous years, the Coca-Cola SZIN Festival invited international guest stars, who can be seen at the Borsodi Nagyszínpad, the second biggest stage of any Hungarian music festival. "At present, there's only one bigger festival stage than this, at the Sziget Festival" — Erika Kolonics, the director of the festival said at the opening media event.
In the international line-up, Alok, the Brazilian superstar DJ, who is in the extremely prestigious 4th place on DJ Mag's list of the world's best disc jockeys, opened the first day with a full-house concert, raving fans and an amazing vibe at the Borsodi Nagyszínpad. Lukas Graham, who broke into the international music scene in 2016 with great success, will come with brand new songs that the audience of SZIN can hear live in Hungary for the first time on Thursday evening.
Timmy Trumpet, who is currently 8th on the list ranking the world's best DJs, will conquer the stage on Friday, while Rita Ora, who will most probably perform songs from her latest album released in July, will be the international star performer of Hungary's second biggest festival stage on Saturday.
Ending the summer in Szeged with Hungarian superstars
Hungary's massive favorites, representing a wide range of music genres, kicked off the summer-ending celebration on the first day of SZIN. Valmar, Quimby, Follow the Flow, Ganxsta Zolee és a Kartel, Budapest Bár, and Adam Ajkay were just some of the highlights of Wednesday night.
On Thursday — among others — Halott Pénz, Honeybeast, Carson Coma, 30Y, Parno Grast, and DJs Metzker Viktória and Yamina will conquer the stages. The rest of the festival will be just as exciting, featuring names like Azahriah, Majka, Margaret Island, Dzsúdló, Bohemian Betyars, Krúbi, Manuel, and Hiperkarma.
Full house at the 55th Szeged SZIN Festival
Thanks to the infrastructure and safety developments made at the Partfürdő, the location of the SZIN, this year the maximum number of visitors per day has been raised by officials from 25,000 to 30,000, Dr. László Botka, mayor of the city of Szeged said at the opening media event, adding that he expects nearly 30,000 visitors each day.
Despite the temperatures rising above 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 Fahrenheit), the first day already had a full house of festival goers celebrating at Hungary's summer-ending music bonanza — tickets for Wednesday were already sold out days before the 2023 Coca-Cola SZIN started.
Photos by Szilvia Molnar / Szegedify
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