BUDAPEST, August 15, 2008 (AFP) - Cosmopolitan, cool and versatile: the Hungarian capital's Sziget festival has become one of the top events on the European summer music circuit, attracting visitors from around the continent for a weekend extravaganza on a small Danube island.

'I was in Denmark recently at a festival but here the atmosphere is much more easy-going. And the weather is much better,' a young Dutch visitor said over a keg of local beer.

The festival, held every year on the island a couple of kilometres (miles) from Budapest's city centre, opened on Wednesday and lasts until Sunday.

And variety is the key to this mega-event with more than 600 concerts on 30 stages over five days, with styles ranging from mainstream rock, reggae and pop to hard rock, gypsy music, alternative folk, electric, jazz and Hare Chrisna metal.

Dressed in a bikini top and minimalist shorts in the August heat, an English girl, clinging to a less-than-sober Frenchman at a concert by Canadian singer Alanis Morissette, said she loves the cheerful and bizarre mood and the variety at Sziget.

With performers from 42 countries, the musical experience is definitely diverse.

When Leningrad -- a Russian ska band with punk and Russian folk traits, and a singer with a foul mouth and a strong liking for vodka -- performed on Wednesday, a band member bit open a can of beer after breaking it on his head, took a few gulps and sprayed it over the Russian crowd.

And the fans went crazy.

Later, visitors were taking bets over whether British band Babyshambles will actually perform or call off its main stage concert on Sunday due to 'health reasons': lead Pete Doherty is known for his issues with drugs.

Not only concerts make up the program on the 76-hectare (187-acre) islet. Tents line the cement path on the main avenue, advertising services ranging from the practical to the unusual.

One representing the Hungarian tax authority is manned by a woman who explains with inifinte patience, despite throbbing base sounds from a nearby stage, that not paying tithes to the state is 'a sin against one's own purse'.

Another set up by a Jewish rabbi advertises 'Answers for 10 forints' -- the equivalent of four euro cents (five US cents) -- while inside he imparts wisdom to a middle-aged rocker with a beard as long as his own.

Catholic, Protestant and Baha'i tents also try to lead lost lambs back onto the right track -- apparently not in vain. According to one Protestant minister, 'many convert' during the festival.

Outside Hungarian, French is the most-heard language in the crowd, though Dutch and German are spoken as well -- with visitors toting tourist phrasebooks struggling to order langos, a local specialty of fried dough topped with sour cream and cheese, or other items.

Forty-six other nationalities are also represented among Sziget's visitors, from Armenians to Chileans to Jamaicans, Japanese and Malians.

Their flags all fly high above the dusty, noisy grounds until Monday morning when the island will slowly return to its usual calm.