Florence + The Machine and Fcukers kept the party going at Sziget 2026 day three

Lewis Capaldi and Antony Szmierek were also on hand to help blast away any mid-festival slump

Going to Sziget Festival is like entering another world, where time moves differently and everything you pass is brighter, bolder and more colourful. At first it feels mind-boggling, but by day three of the Budapest bash, you’ve acclimatised and settled into a new, more vibrant life than your standard 9-to-5 that the boring old real world offers.

It’s also by this point that you’re questioning whether you’ll ever want to go back to normal. And why would you, when the Island of Freedom also offers a spectacular bill of entertainment? The third day of the festival served up plenty of opportunities to dance, from Fcukers ’ party-starting set to a joyous jump-along to Florence + The Machine , plus late-night antics from Manchester’s Antony Szmierek . Perhaps we just live here now, and we’re OK with that. (RD)

For those of us who’ve always wondered what it might look like if Ari Aster directed a concert, Florence + the Machine’s jaw-dropping headline set more than delivered. The show was by turns epic, awe-inspiring and ludicrously good fun.

Noting that we’ve passed midsummer, Florence purred: “At the height of summer, we often make… offerings for the solstice. Would anyone like to make an… offering ?” After fans raised their hands or jumped up on each other’s shoulders to signal their readiness for ritual sacrifice, she began to count the ‘offerings’: “Seven! Eight!” It was utterly bonkers and utterly fabulous.

Such schlock might not land quite as well if the tunes and stagecraft weren’t so shimmeringly spectacular – but this was elevated horror, not some junky B-movie. Florence opened with ‘Everybody Scream’, the title track from her darkly opulent, Mercury Prize-nominated 2025 album . It was inspired by the ectopic pregnancy that nearly cost her life, and it is remarkable that she’s taken such a nightmarish experience and turned it into something so life-affirming and empowering.

As her backing singers and dancers – clad in gothic gowns like they’d wandered in from a production of The Crucible – huddled together, Florence twirled around the stage, her blood-dress flailing dramatically. It’s a good job she didn’t play during the previous night’s solar eclipse, because we almost certainly would have all been turned into frogs. Dancing out to her own stage at the end of a runway, Florence was the grand master and high priestess of proceedings, in absolute control and with tens of thousands of bewitched punters under her spell.

At one point, even she looked overwhelmed by the majesty of what she’d created, taking it all in for a moment and blowing a kiss to the crowd. And then she delved back into the cauldron for more. (JB)