Sziget 2022 ends with a bang

On this very last day of the festival, another great line-up was planned, with Arctic Monkeys as the highlight of the day. This is what people had been waiting for all week. Unfortunately, Sam Fender cancelled his show at the last minute. He would not be able to make it onto the stage due to illness. But with some shuffling around in the programme of the Main Stage, it still remained a well-filled day.

Inhaler

The Irish band Inhaler started at a quarter to seven in the Freedome. The band was still in the middle of their European tour as the opener for Arctic Monkeys when they performed at the festival. So it was probably no coincidence that these two bands were on the island on the same day. With a relatively short set of only 45 minutes, they still managed to make it a party. They started immediately with the song “It Won’t Always Be Like This”. The audience that had come to see these artists was clearly in for it, the Freedome was soon packed. Towards the end of their set, they played their latest single, “These Are The Days”, which came out two months ago. To close, the band had saved their biggest hit from their 2021 album. With “My Honest Face”, they closed their set.

Holly Humberstone

Immediately after Inhaler, Holly Humberstone could be found on the Main Stage. The English singer stood in front of a keyboard with a guitar in her hands, while someone else sat behind the drums. The two of them represented a whole band. With only two EPs to her name, the young singer has already managed to create an entire fan base. Her songs were sung along word for word by a large group of people at the front of the audience. This while many people seemed to have never heard of her. Only two years after her debut single was released, she managed to get on the Main Stage of Sziget. The fact that Humberstone broke through during the Corona crisis was also reflected in her stage presence. She seemed not very at ease on such a large stage and did not really know how to behave. In spite of that, she put down a nice set, with songs like “Scarlett” and “Falling Asleep at the Wheel”. She also played her single “London Is Lonely”, from her debut album that will be released this year.

Princess Nokia

In the meantime, a new set started in the Freedome. The American Princess Nokia entered the stage, a little late. Because of the heat, she came running onto the stage with a water pistol, with which she sprayed the audience with water. As the tent of the Freedome seemed to hold the heat, this was more than welcome. With only a DJ behind a table and herself on the stage, she really started her set. Her hit “Sugar Honey Iced Tea (S.H.I.T.)” was the first song, and immediately the audience went wild. Even the rapper himself sometimes had to catch his breath because she was jumping around so much. The fourth song was her mega-hit “I Like Him”, which went completely viral last year. After taking a break, she told the audience why she needed to take it easy. ‘Go a little easy on me, because I have severe asthma and it is very dusty here.’ Despite this, she continued her set full of energy. After having played for more than an hour, it was enough. With her song “Diva” she closed the set.

Arctic Monkeys

Finally, it was time for the show that so many people had been waiting for all week. The band Arctic Monkeys was finally on the Main Stage. The area in front of the Main Stage was packed with people again, as far as the eye could see. As this was the last show on the Main Stage this year, it seemed like all of Sziget had gathered here. Despite the heat, the band came on stage in leather jackets. Later, Alex Turner, the singer and guitarist, took them off quickly because he was ‘hot and bothered’. With a career of about sixteen years now, the band had enough songs to choose from to compose their setlist. They played songs from every album they ever released. However, most of them came from “AM”, their most famous album from 2013. While Turner kept his sunglasses on for most of the show, the band played a total of 21 songs. Surely this was the longest show of all the headliners that have performed on the Main Stage in the past week. When the bass kicked in for the song “Do I Wanna Know?” the crowd really went wild. As one of their biggest hits, this was obviously what everyone was waiting for. After a few more songs, the band left the stage. A little later they came back to play an encore. They had really saved the best for last; after “No. 1 Party Anthem” and “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” they played “R U Mine?”. After this last hit, their set was really finished. This also meant the end of the shows on the Main Stage.

The whole week

During the six days of the Sziget Festival, there was more to do and see than just musical performances. For example, every evening at eleven o’clock the Magic Mirror hosted the show “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”. There was a real circus on the island, where many different shows could be seen throughout the day. Also, there were dance and theatre performances, there were places where you could play games all day long. There was a real “Kiss Cam” on the screens before the two main acts on the Main Stage every day. There was food and drink from all sorts of different cuisines and so much more to do and see. Even the dust clouds that grew worse by the day could not spoil the fun. By the end, it was so dusty on the island that all the bandanas, mouth caps and scarves were sold out. In the middle of the night, you could still see people walking around with sunglasses on to keep the dust out of their eyes. What was also special to notice was that people were often very loyal to their own country. At times when acts from a certain country were playing, many people from that country could be found at the stages. All in all, this was a week to remember.