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(MTI) - Istvan Gyorgy, Budapest's deputy mayor in charge of city operations, told that the municipality intended to charge a fee for use of public spaces with certain exceptions for events in the public interest. The Sziget Festival, he said, did not fall into this category. In response to Gyorgy's comments, Sziget's press chief Viktoria Veto told MTI that the organisers trusted that, in spite of his previous threats against the festival, the Mayor of Budapest did not want to push the festival - a serious economic and tourist multicultural event - into a hopeless position.
Veto added that the incumbent's predecessor in 2008 had guaranteed the festival free-of-charge use of the venue for three years.
Daily Nepszava wrote that the fee would drain 2.5 billion forints (EUR 9m) away from the Sziget Festival's budget, which last year amounted to 2.65 billion.
