Sziget – Day 3

Guest blog by chargé d’affaires Theresa Bubbear

Today I spent my third and final day at the Sziget Festival for this year. It was, unsurprisingly, a day of threes – third speech in Hungarian, policemen from three countries, three unexpected faces on Hungarian banknotes, and a meeting with three organisations. And Team GB remains third in the Olympic medals table. I am now passing the baton to three of the younger generation for the weekend.

The afternoon began with a press conference with the local police chief and the organiser of the Festival to talk about the role of the police at Sziget and to introduce the British, Dutch and German policemen who have made the island their beat for a week. This is the 5th year in which British bobbies have come to Sziget and they are always mobbed by people wanting to try on their helmets and asking whether they are real policemen or not. Fortunately there have been no serious incidents and the policemen are having a relaxed week, offering advice and help as required and directing people towards the joint EU consular office for more information.

After a short stroll with the policemen we headed to the Ability Park area where we had a go at finding our way around an obstacle course wearing dark goggles and using white sticks. It was an interesting and frightening experience. I got lost in a small corner of the maze and thought I would never find my way out, even though I had seen how small the whole thing was before I put the goggles on.

We tried a blind taste/smell test before learning some braille letters and deciphering some multilingual braille messages (including “Team GB”) created with bottle tops. We have worked closely with Ability Park and have sponsored some competition winners to go to the Paralympic Games next month, but I had never seen their work in action and I wish I could have stayed longer.

I left my daughter and her friend to tackle the wheelchair challenge while I headed to the Central Bank tent to meet Deputy Bank Governor Karvalits. He showed me around the display, talked me through the security features in Hungarian banknotes, and let me try to distinguish a real banknote from other pieces of paper using only my hands.

We sat on some recycled banknotes, put our own faces on some banknotes, and Levi and I played the “banking tower” game – basically a game of Jenga designed to show the interdependencies of the banking system. With the helpful advice of the Deputy Governor we were able to build the “bank” to a considerable height and its collapse was due to external factors (the wind) rather than Embassy mismanagement.

After a brief stop at the Amnesty International stand to touch base with their team, with whom we have worked on several joint projects, we ended the day at a discussion with representatives of the International Centre for Democratic Transition, the Corvinus Society, and the Tom Lantos Institute. We had an interesting chat about Hungarian politics and UK views on everything from the Commonwealth to fish and chips, and I promised to take part in a meeting with Roma women organised by the Tom Lantos Institute later in the year. I had a brief go at the “shots” game, trying – and failing – to identify the origins of potent Moldovan and Kosovan brews. But as I had another event to go to I thought I’d better stop at two, even if three would have been better for today’s blog.

Sziget is getting ready for the weekend. Numbers are building, the dust is everywhere, the atmosphere is relaxed, the sun is shining, and the musical decibels are climbing. It’s been a fantastic week – exciting, interesting and energising. I’ve met fascinating people, learned a great deal, and been impressed by the interest in the UK and the Embassy. But my work is done and now I am handing over to my three daughters to enjoy the music.