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| The Civil Sziget. Photo: Sziget office |
Civil organisations are currently required to purchase a day or week ticket if they wish to represent themselves at the Sziget Festival, Kurt Lewin Foundation chairman György Ligeti told the Hungarian News Agency.
Ligeti said the festival, at which many civil organisations participate, is an excellent initiative, but it is a "curiosity" among Europe's other big festivals in that it requires civil organisations to pay to be there. If the Sziget Festival's organisers want to run the event solely from a business viewpoint, many civil organisations will be unable to provide their services for financial reasons, he warned.
Ligeti noted that the civil organisations that had signed the petition were protesting in no other manner. He also said the festival's organisers have every legal right to require civil organisers to pay admission fees.
The Roma Press Centre told the Hungarian News Agency on Wednesday that about half of the civil organisations participating at the Sziget Festival had signed the petition, among the National Association of the Deaf and Blind, the Shelter Charity Association, the Hand in Hand Foundation and the Hungarian Alliance of Drug Prevention and Harm Reduction Associations.
The civil organisations argue that, just like the Sziget Festival's musical acts, they too are part of the event's profile and draw visitors. Still they are required to undertake a financial burden, which sends the message that the festival's organisers are uninterested in the Civil Sziget.
The Children and Youth Conference (GYIK) earlier told wire services that civil organisations preparing to participate at the Sziget Festival had turned to Budapest Mayor Gábor Demszky for assistance because the festival's organisers required them to purchase "professional tickets" at 70pc-90pc of the regular tickets' cost. The tickets are unrealistically expensive for not-for-profit civil organisations, GYIK said.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
