Were the flight more than 3 hours late, the passengers would have been eligible for a €250 compensation (€400 if traveling a distance of more than 950 miles). After much anxiety and uncertainty, we land in Budapest with a delay of precisely 2 hours and 53 minutes. It’s mid-August, the traditional “if you want to travel now, you must suffer the consequences” period across Europe, and the morning of 10 August kicks off with a cool “we literally have no idea when your flight will take off” from RyanAir’s staff at the Berlin airport. As the Óbudai Island (“Sziget” means “island” in Hungarian) enters the festival’s 28th year and prepares for its 10-millionth visitor, an assemblage of influencers and A-listers, among them one actor Timmy Chalamet, are about to storm the place as social media hype and anticipation reach a fervent high. The second day, headlined by the Kings of Leon, hosted a smaller crowd with no less enthusiasm.

Nobody is surprised that the first day, headlined by Dua Lipa, sees a full house capacity of 95,000. Partying, joy, escapism, and mostly positive chaos are all back with a vengeance – and somewhat changed infrastructure – this year. After the prolonged social and economic devastation caused by the pandemic, Europe’s largest festivity congregation, the magnificently ambitious and groundbreaking Sziget, is finally back, running from 10-15 August. It’s been two years, but it feels like longer.

Kings of leon kick the bucket