Local Rockers Plan World's Longest Set this Weekend

Rock-and-rollers' abilities to push themselves to the limit are well documented, but their efforts usually involve dangerous quantities of drugs, alcohol and broken furniture. One ensemble going against these proud traditions is Sziámi ("Siamese"). This weekend, the well-known Hungarian band - and their most die-hard followers - will take a double shot of man's most ancient, natural and powerful psychic cocktails: music, and lack of sleep. And the only thing broken will be a record - of the Guinness variety. The band plans to be the first in history to play for 48 hours flat, breaking the current record of 44 hours, 38 minutes. The musical marathon will take place at Gödör Club between 05:00 Friday and 05:00 Sunday. To keep them awake, the band is appealing to any artists and musicians. And when they say any artists, they mean it: their site pleads with anyone that can "paint, build, dismantle, draw, dance, photograph, film, project, weave, sew, install (or whatever you do to make an installation), read, write, talk, make music, genetically modify, resurrect, co-educate, decorate, reduce, produce, reproduce, etc." to participate.

It seems that if you can write an e-mail outlining your project to insomnia@sziami.hu you're in. What's more, successful applicants not only get to stay awake all weekend, they get to do it for absolutely nothing. For their part, non-creatives will have to pay Ft 1,000 for prime-time access - after 22:00 on Friday and Saturday - but otherwise anyone is free to drop in and offer support and encouragement. Dozens of artists have already signed up and the record attempt will be officially presided over by culture minister András Bozóki, although it is not clear whether he will be going without sleep all weekend. Guinness imposes strict rules - at least four performers must be on stage, the audience must not drop below ten, songs cannot be repeated for four hours and breaks between songs must be shorter than 30 seconds).

If they succeed, the Sziámi boys will be in illustrious company, Hungary already holds records for chess, mass kissing and, most impressively, fastest car window opened by a dog.