A Festive Season

It's a little bit of this, a little bit of that. As we approach summer in Hungary, there are festivals of all sorts on nearly every weekend of the spring and summer that you should know about. Click 'read more' for more.

They're everywhere! Villages, bigger towns in the Hungarian countryside and even Budapest host a wide range of happenings to listen to music, eat, drink, etc. Here's a roundup of the big ones and what we think are some gems you might not be aware of. Here goes.

Hungarian Festivals in 2009

1. Mediawave: (25th April - 2nd May) the primal festival, organized the 19th time in Győr and the surrounding villages, with some projects reaching over the borders of the country. With its film program, concerts, workshops and conferences and exhibitions Mediawave is one of the best and most authentic of the Hungarian festivals. And one of the earliest in the year, too. This year has a special central theme, 69 namely and you're right if you think about something naughty here, because it really is about eroticism.

2. Május 1/May Day: (1st May - 3rd May) celebrating Labor Day in style, we can find some festivals to attend to on the week-end, from bizarre like the final of the Strongest Man in Hungary Competition (Magyarország Legerősebb Embere) to simply funny like Rockmajális.

3. V. Budai Gourmet Fesztivál: (30th April - 3rd May) Some significant changes are taking place in Hungarian gastronomy right now, so let's treat this festival separetaly from the May Day silliness. Here the visitors can meet the new wave Hungarian cuisine in an elegant setting. The main program is accompanied by Winetastings and little menus reinterpreting the holy Trinity of gulyás-rántotthús-palacsinta, reaching back to the very roots of traditional Hungarian gastronomy. There are other programs too, to cater to other senses as well.

4. Hőlégballon és Rétesfesztivál: (15th May - 17th May) We still keep wondering about this one. What on Earth might link balloons and strudel so that they're represented on the same festival in Dunaújváros? Although the city itself is the result of a huge socialist investment that turned the merry village of Dunapentele into Sztálinváros (Stalinville), it is worth visiting for its friendliness, and what better occasion is there than a strudel festival, where you can meet and taste a specialty of Hungarian desserts?

5. Ünnepi Könyvhét: (4th June - 8th June)
The literary festival with the longest tradition here, 2009 will see the 80th Week of the Book in various venues (Budapest, Debrecen, Balatonfüred) where readers can meet their favourite authors, poets and where the most literary novelties are introduced by the publishing houses.

6. Bartók + Bécs 2009 Miskolci Nemzetközi Operafesztivál: (10th June - 21st June) Booking is long open for the young, yet ambitious operafestival in Miskolc where Bartók's oeuvre is the recurring topic complemented by other stagings as well. This year "Vienna" is the keyword for different guestplays invited. Works of Alban Berg, Schönberg, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven will be shown. A cheaper, yet quality alternative for the pricey top notch European opera festivals.

7. Fishing on Orfű: (18th June - 20th June)
It's the truly alternative music festival near Pécs. The original idea came from András Lovasi, singer of the popular indie rock bands Kispál és a Borz and Kiscsillag. Less crowded (meaning 10000 visitors in 2008), less commercial crap, less internationally acclaimed bands, more freedom, more space for alternative music and young emerging talents. And there's an ongoing story about László Rátgéber, the famous basketball coach
attempting to jump over the lake of Orfű...

8. Volt Fesztivál: (1st July - 4th July) This is the oldest of the large music festivals of the summer, and many consider it the best. Taking place near the western border in Sopron, Volt fesztivál invites to a hip party with Limp Bizkit, Franz Ferdinand, Marilyn Manson, Ladytron, Freestylers, Tankcsapda, Quimby, PASO and many others.

9. Chronoswiss 2009 Veteránautós Találkozó: (9th July - 12th July) To our biggest surprise there's a tightly knit but expanding circle of vintage and old timer car-lovers who occasionally gather somewhere for a dramatic race. In July the scenic Séd Valley will host the biggest of all these events. Beautiful scenery, glamorous cars near the lovely City of the Queens as Veszprém is affectionately called sometimes.

10. Balatonsound: (9th July - 12th July) On the same weekend as the old timer meetup a huge and quirky electronic music festival takes place near Veszprém at lake Balaton in Zamárdi. The line-up is pretty impressive as of now: Moby, Underworld, Kraftwerk, Nouvelle vague, Colorstar, Neo, Péterfy Bori, Anima Sound System and some others not yet confirmed. It's very promising and rumour says that chicest people will be there.

11. Sziget: (12th August - 17th August) Of course it's the One, with almost a week full of music, arts, theatre, games and NGO presence, where bands like The Offspring, Snow Patrol, Die Toten Hosen, Coldcut, Placebo or the Prodigy do the show. Everyone can find programs and happenings and people to their liking, it's really a few days of transformation and openness.

12. SZIN: (26th August - 30th August) usually the SZIN, Youth Days in Szeged Partfürdő marks the end of the summer festival season so a bit of a particular melancholy is lurking around. But there's the promise too, that next year they'll be all back, and we'll back too, enjoying music and freedom.