Sziget Festival 2009

It is cold, so I thought I could share some dates when it for sure will be warmer in Budapest:

August 11 - August 17, 2009
What will happen then? Those are the dates for Sziget Festival 2009, the festival that draws several hundred thousand people from far and near to the Óbudai Island in Budapest every single year. Last year Iron Maiden was one of the hot names, and next year we for sure now that Basement Jaxx, Korn, Nick Cave, Franz Ferdinand, Morcheeba and Natalia Imbrulia will participate. It is also possible to wish for your favorite bands on the official webpage of the Sziget Festival. So if you are interested, go make a wishlist here.

More upcoming events and concerts

Budapest Spring Festival 2009

Budapest has a lot of festivals, and every year they arrange a spring festival. In 2009 the spring festival will be arranged between 20 March and 5 April. Among the artists you can find:

Ágnes Szakály, Amadinda Percussion Group, Anderszewski Piotr, Arkadi Volodos, Bartók Quartet, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Budapest Tomkins Vocal Ensemble, Camerata Salzburg,
Ensemble Martinù, Harding Daniel, János Dobra, Kálmán Záborszky, Kodály Quartet, Kremerata Baltica, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Maisenberg Oleg, Mika Teranagane, Milan Turkovic,
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Say Fazil, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis and Zugló Philharmonia.

For a full list of the programs and venues, go to www.btf.hu/btf2009/

If you are looking for an apartment or would like a guided tour as you come to Budapest for the festival, feel free to contact us for advices and help!

Other programs and concerts in Budapest

Budapest Autumn Festival, October 10-19.

Budapest is the city of festivals; Sziget Festival, Spring Festival, Autumn Festival and all kinds of small and big festivals. This autumn from October 10-19. you can be Budapests guests as the Budapest Autumn Festival will be arranged in the city. For a detailed program, go to the festivalpage.

Upcoming programs and concerts in Budapest


Below you will find the Budapest Autumn Festival press release:
If I add up the two figures in number seventeen, I get eight. But adding nine to eight will again make seventeen. How interesting! Just like the Budapest Autumn Festival. Staged for the seventeenth time this year, it will certainly be as interesting as ever.

Although prosperous firms and individuals in Hungary are still far from believing that contemporary art should be oversponsored, we have been having sponsors also this year, saving us from cultural shiver on those cold autumn days by supporting what is practically the most exciting contemporary all-out art festival in Budapest, the whole country, the whole

Black and white, yes and no, man and woman, outside and inside – gosh, how many times have we read these commonplaces in the descriptions of various projects, dance concepts and theatrical ventures! Have we also landed on this heap? No, my dear friends, we have not. All we want to do is to demonstrate how a colourful world is also a better world and how pale and grey would everythig be if the paint earmarked for culture was used, instead, to add even more colour to colour television programmes. Fortunately we can say we shall not fall into this trap. With culture playing an increasingly important role in people’s lives, politicians, too, will have to face the need to meet the requirements of their beloved voters. We shall wake up one day to find all news of catastrophes, backbiting and stock exchange gone from our dailies that will write only about theatre performances, concerts and exhibition openings. The multis will realize that they can sell their new air fresheners and conditioners only by advertising culture and will therefore not refrain from digging deep into their pockets and supporting the emergence and performance of the newest, most topical and most up-to-date works.

And the people. Those sweet people! They will no longer be of the view that whatever contains a thought is modern and decadent, therefore indigestable and dangerous. In fact, they will be dying to be able to pay many times the price of a brand name T-shirt for a ticket to a contemporary dance show. And then blood rushes to their faces, their colour rises ike in those old Chinese propaganda posters where sparkling sunshine shone through a rainbow, irradiating the colourful flowers and small animals of the meadows. And our old glory returns! (Or, what is more important, appears to return.)

Well, that’s what we wanted to bring to your attention. And of course point to those fantastic artists and exciting performances that make this year’s festival so colourful. These works and creators deal with the issues of the world without prevarication and colouring, their radicalism matching the black-and-white of Budapest Autumn Festival 2008.

Balázs Kovalik | artistic director

MOL Jazz Festival in Budapest, September 17-21.

The MOL Jazz Festival is the most significant event in the Budapest jazz calendar. This year sees the sixth massive roundup in the Hungarian capital of some of Europe’s most interesting musicians. As always, the 9th District of Budapest famed for its lively and friendly sidewalk cafés plays host to the festival. The Big Tent raised among delightully dilapidated old riverside warehouses (Közraktár) and the jazz-boat anchored at the Nehru Embankment will serve as the main venues, although the opening and the final concerts will be staged at Budapest’s state-of-the-art Palace of Arts (MÜPA). However, for those who crave more music after the main events, they can gorge themselves on high quality jazz, free of charge, in the informal setting of the Ráday Street cafés (Fotocella; Jaffa; Paris, Texas; If, Fecske) as well as at the Pinceszínház (Cellar Theatre), the Sanyi és Aranka Theatre and at the Hotel Ibis.

The Festival naturally features the giants of Hungarian jazz, it stages unique productions that join gifted local musicians with foreign jazz stars and it also serves as a springboard for our incredibly talented youngsters. One of the declared aims of the MOL Jazz Festival Budapest is to put Hungarian jazz into a European context. It hopes to achieve this by the aforementioned international workshops and by acquainting domestic audiences with the varied and vibrant European jazz scene.
With the choice of venues widening year by year, one can enjoy practically the whole gamut of jazz during the festival, from traditional mainstream acts right through to modern experimental music. One of the new venues will be the MOL Jazz Lounge, a tent catering specifically for young audiences receptive to jazz. The Jazz Lounge will open in the morning but between 19:00 and 22:00 it will feature some of our most outstanding DJs.

The curtain-raiser to the festival will be a concert by the Modern Art Orchestra playing compositions of two highly original progressive musicians, Kristóf Bacsó and Szabolcs Oláh and featuring two outstanding soloists of the new generation, saxophonist Gábor Bolla and guitar-player Márton Fenyvesi. One of Europe’s most unique jazz legends, the French clarinetist Louis Sclavis will show yet another facet of his wide-ranging talents by presenting live the sound-track he composed for the silent movie, Dans la nuit.

The festival’s special workshops will bring you the great favourite of French jazz critics, vocalist Gabor Winand, the virtuoso Armenian-Hungarian accordionist David Yengibarjan, the progressive fusion guitarist, Tibor Eichinger, the unique guitar sound of Gábor Gadó and Indo-jazz violinist Zoltán Lantos’ Mirrorworld augmented by Norwegian guitar-player Eivind Aarset.

In the Big Tent and on the jazz-boat the festival’s tone will be set, as ever, by open minded, innovative European bands the most outstanding of which will be Dave Stapleton Quintet from Britain, Jazzkamikaze from Denmark, the Juhani Aaltonen Trio from Finland, the Heinz Sauer-Michael Wollny Duo from Germany and the Trio Grande from Belgium. The quartet led by Austrian sax-player Wolfgang Puschnig will be given extra flavour by the inventions of American bass-guitarist Jamaaladeen Tacuma. One of the highlights of the festival will be the appearance of the magnetic African-American drummer Rashied Ali, one-time sideman of Archie Shepp, Don Cherry and many others who will be fronting his own quintet.

There will be several concerts highlighting the best of our brilliant young players, such as by the Plastic Septet or by trumpeter Gábor Subicz, winner on his instrument of the audience prize at this year’s jazz talent contest organised by Hungarian Radio.

At last year's festival the Viktor Tóth Quartet presented live and to standing ovation the material of their then brand new album that was voted "Jazz record of 2007" by the critics of Hungary's most prestigious music magazine, Gramofon. The album Climbing with mountains went on to earn serious international plaudits. As part of this year's festival, three consecutive evenings from 18th to 20th September the quartet including Viktor Tóth on saxophone, Hamid Drake on drums, Mátyás Szandai on bass and Ferenc Kovács on trumpet and violin will record their new album live at the Take Five jazz club.

For a detailed program, check out the homepage of the festival.

17th Budapest International Wine and Champagne Festival

The Wine Festival is one of Central Europe’s most prestigious and popular trade events, as well as an all-art festival where every year tens of thousands of visitors experience wine tasting in cultured surroundings and get to know the wine makers and the arts and traditions associated with viniculture.

Opening times: on 10 and 11 September: 14:00-23:00, on 12-13-14 September: 10:00-23:00

The main event of the Wine Festival, the Wine Exhibition and Fair will be held for the eighth year in what is maybe Budapest’s most atmospheric setting, the Buda Castle District, listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. The cream of Hungary’s wine producers will offer their most sumptuous wines for tasting at the Wine Festival. Alongside the home-grown nectars numerous foreign wines will be presented by noted wine traders. Gastronomy is an integral part of the Wine Festival and visitors will be able to find, amongst others, barbecues, stews cooked over an open fire, freshly baked savoury snacks, „töki pompos lángos”, a range of cheeses, including ewe, goat’s and cow’s cheese, wine snacks and other delicacies. Entertainment, dance and music will be provided by the high-quality performances on the Festival Stage.


Programmes:

Wine University
Location: The Centre of the Hungarian Culture Foundation (Buda Castle, 6. Szentháromság square)
Date: 8-10 September 2008, 16:00-19:00

Harvest Procession
Location: Buda Castle
Date: 13 September 2008

Harvest Festival
Location: Open-Air Ethnographical Museum (Skanzen Open Air Museum, Szentendre)
Date: 13-14 September 2008, 9:00-18:00

Gala concert
Location: MÜPA - Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
Date: Friday, 19 September 2008, 19.30 Tickets are available from the network of Concert & Média as well as online on www.jegyelado.hu .

Charity Wine Auction
Location: Military History Museum (Buda Castle, 2-4. Kapisztrán square)
Date: 18 September 2008

Photo exhibition
Location: Hungarian National Gallery, Building “A”
Date: 10-28 September 2008

Special guest region: Sicily

Further Information:
www.aborfesztival.hu

Source: Budapestinfo.hu