In partnership with Sziget Festival
Words: Jordan Bassett, Rhian Daly
At the far end of the Sziget site lies a circular temporary theatre space. It’s home to the Magic Mirror show, a queer circus that offers anyone who steps inside a safe space to be whoever and identify however they want. Once the show starts, you’re offered a trove of inspiration to guide you to your authentic self. “Some people call us freaks,” our host tells us, but in the range of drag queens and performers in the line-up, there only seems to be a wealth of stars, whether they’re pole dancing to Def Leppard or mesmerising with aerial routines.
Back outside Magic Mirror’s doors, that surplus of stars and feeling you can be whoever you want, in a musical sense, spills over onto the other stages. There really is something for everyone at Sziget, whether you want to open up the pit to some metal, skank to some grime or pretend you’re dancing in the club. Here are some of the eclectic highlights of Team NME’s fourth day at the festival. (RD)
Bring Me The Horizon blew our tiny minds
Bring Me The Horizon at Sziget 2026. Credit: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images
Towards the end of Bring Me The Horizon’s extravagant, pyro-tastic headline set, the band disappeared offstage and screens piped out a short video that depicted their incredible two-decade journey from Sheffield deathcore grotbags to global metal superstars. And then they returned to the stage for an encore that bounced from the apocalyptic ‘Doom’ to chrome-plated closer ‘Throne’, reminding Sziget exactly how they’ve pulled off their improbable feat.
Ultimately, it’s all about ambition and experimentation. Frontman Oli Sykes once told NME of Bring Me’s maximalist approach to their gigs: “We’re trying to make a Universal Studios-style experience in the form of a rock set: we’re so scared that people might be bored for one second that our show is full of constant flashing lights!” For once, he was being understated.
Tonight’s frankly demented show opened with an avatar called Eve, who appeared on the screens to ask: “Sziget, are you ready for the night of your fucking life?” What followed was a hugely conceptual gig that paired the band’s innovative pop-metal with a sci-fi narrative (some fabulous mumbo-jumbo about the impending apocalypse) and a whole host of Universal Studios-style visual trickery. As said video screens depicted the show, Sykes’ and fans’ faces were super-imposed with demonic visages – soundtracked by Bring Me’s intense, brutally fast-paced tunes, many of them packed with more ideas than most bands cram into entire albums, the effect was intoxicating.
Sykes was an unhinged ringmaster, chastising the crowd for not going hard enough (“DO YOU KNOW WHAT A CIRCLE PIT IS?”) and inviting Barnabas Kókai, frontman of Hungarian deathcore band The Southern Circle, to growl through a tour debut of the excoriating ‘Pray For Plagues’. “We are Bring Me the Horizon from Sheffield, England,” Sykes barked at one point in this head-spinning tour of his restless psyche. And look how far they’ve come. (JB)
Rose Gray took us on a journey
Rose Gray at Sziget. Credit: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images
“I’m trying to create this feeling of being in your room getting ready, to making your way to the club, to the club, to making your way home,” Rose Gray told NME about her live show before she took to the Revolut Stage yesterday (keep an eye out for the full interview coming soon). Her Sziget performance accomplished that, taking the tent on a journey that spanned hours – despite her only being on stage for 60 minutes. Ravey visuals and cinematic clips of London underscored that intention, while a rail of clothes positioned to the right of the stage served as both a prop for getting ready and a club cloakroom, belongings deposited while the main action took place centre stage.
That action was nothing short of phenomenal, too, with Gray barely pausing through her hour-slot for a breather as she ran through tracks from her acclaimed debut album, ‘Louder, Please’, new cuts like ‘Just Be Bodies’ and a cover of Kesha’s ‘Attention!’. ‘Club To Your Arms’ made her intended journey literal, with the star explaining beforehand it captured “the beautiful journey I took one night from the club to my lover’s arms”, while she used the euphoric ‘April’ as a chance to get closer to the audience, running down the space in the middle of the tent and urging everyone to “get down on the floor” before bouncing back up for the song’s crescendo.
As ‘Party People’ capped things off, Gray moved aside the clothes rail to reveal a mirror, and grabbed a lipstick to scrawl on it, “I <3 you, Rose Gray always” before planting a big smacker on it. The feeling in the Sziget crowd was very much mutual.
The best of the rest
Sziget 2026. Credit: Purger Tamas
As day four of Sziget bled into day five, we spotted a huge steampunk submarine being dragged across the site. Naturally, it was plonked next to a pirate ship that pumped out traditional Hungarian dance-folk while its pirates blasted appreciative punters with bubbles.
So, things were starting to get a little crazy, as was proved when Nia Archives annihilated the Revolut Stage with her frenetic jungle set. A packed crowd moved under white strobes as she conducted proceedings from a minimalist stage adorned only with her two band members and a sofa, battering through the explosive likes of ‘Feelings Go Numb’ with demonic energy.
It was a similar story over on the Bolt Night stage, which couldn’t contain the crowd for South Korean DJ Peggy Gou’s relentless volley of old-school bangers, including her mind-melting Eurodance remix of ‘The Rhythm of the Night’. No wonder they call it the Island of Freedom. (JB)
Skepta at Sziget. Credit: Joseph Okpako/WireImage
Whenever an artist starts their set with one of their biggest songs, you know you’re probably in for a stacked performance. That certainly was true of Skepta’s main stage show last night, which kicked off on an instant high with ‘Shutdown’. The hits just kept on coming from that point, with early showings for ‘That’s Not Me’ and ‘Gas Me Up (Diligent)’, as Skeppy bounced around a stage filled with Rimowa-style suitcases, the screen at the back showing an airport boarding notice for a flight to the festival.
The MC soared throughout the set, whether getting stuck into “some rap shit” like ‘Redrum’ or switching back to grime for ‘Nasty’. “One sec, I need to take a flick,” the MC told his DJ after a ferocious ‘No Security’, pausing the show to snap a few photos with the crowd behind him. For all involved, this was one set to remember. (RD)
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