Skrillex Tells Fans to Put Down Their Phones, Bids Farewell to Sziget 2026 with a Blackout Screen
Skrillex closed out Sziget 2026 with a headline set that deliberately kept the big screens dark all night, telling the crowd to "put your phones down." The August 15 Budapest closing night also featured Jorja Smith and Soulwax on the same bill.
The two giant screens flanking the stage stayed almost entirely black the whole night. That was Skrillex's choice for the closing night of Sziget Festival 2026 — the LA-based DJ and producer, headlining the main stage on August 15, kept the screens dark for most of the set, with only occasional flashes showing him bouncing behind the decks.
The answer lay in something he shouted to the crowd. Before mixing Damian Marley's "Welcome To Jamrock" into "Make It Bun Dem," his own track with Bob Marley's youngest son, he told the audience to "put your damn phones down" and instead feel "real damn life." According to NME's live report, most of the crowd complied, raising their hands instead of phone screens. After the track ended, he first let out a weak "scream," then a few seconds later repeated it with more force: "SCREAM—"
The stage effects didn't hold back that night, though. The whole set was packed with pyrotechnics, thick smoke, and laser-like beams slicing through the night sky. Skrillex blended original tracks like "Ratata" and "Diwali" (his collab with rapper Beam and Indian rising star Naisha) into Jack Ü's "Where Are Ü Now" and a remix of Don Toliver's "E85," pushing the night on Budapest's Óbudai-sziget to its peak. A fireworks show capped off the finale.
Zimmer90 Makes Their Hungarian Stage Debut
Opening for Skrillex was German dream-pop trio Zimmer90, playing their first-ever show in Hungary. Frontman Josch Becker, in a blue retro Adidas tracksuit and sunglasses, stood behind his keyboard and looked out at the crowd gathered at the Revolut Stage, calling it "crazy for us."
The band moved from dreamy pop tracks "Yours & Mine" and "Makes Me Wanna Dance" through their five-year-old debut single "Movin'," before bringing in "Learn to Let You Go," co-written with their "good friends" from New Zealand, Balu Brigada. After performing "Summer Nights" bathed in orange light, they covered Daft Punk's "One More Time" to welcome dusk, and closed by teasing an unreleased new song, leading the crowd in singing along to the chorus, "I can't stop / I won't stop," before handing the stage over to Skrillex.
Jorja Smith's Party Set and Soulwax's Triple-Drummer Mix
Jorja Smith from Walsall will release her third album, "What Are The Odds," on August 21. Fresh off a two-week run opening for Harry Styles in Mexico City, she admitted, "I'm jet-lagged, feels like I'm in a different time zone." Her Sziget set was dubbed the "party set," with the crowd dancing to older tracks like "Where Did I Go?" and "Try Me," while the piano and saxophone lines threading through the hypnotic beat of her new single "I Lied, You Lied" were a highlight of the show.
At midnight, Belgian electronic act Soulwax opened their Revolut Stage set with their 2017 track "Do You Wanna Get In Trouble?", the same phrase flashing across the screens. Brothers David and Stephen Dewaele performed around a massive circular rig, backed by three drummers hitting the kit simultaneously. According to the venue announcement, the rig was actually a "controller" hooked up to synthesizers, letting the duo layer sounds on top of each other and shake the whole crowd.
