Budapest Spring Festival, Hungary
Travel to Hungary’s biggest music and theatre cultural event.
From jazz to dance, The Budapest Spring Festival, held in the Hungarian capital every March and April, is the country's biggest cultural event.
Budapest, the capital of Hungary, likes to bill itself as The Festival City, and that’s a pretty fair summation of what to expect. There’s always something going on there, and events spring up year-round.
However, the centrepiece of the cultural calendar is the Budapest Spring Festival, which is a magnet for the very best in the high arts.
In venues across town, there are orchestral and chamber concerts, jazz, contemporary dance, film screenings and much more. There are over 200 events in total.
The festival first took place in 1981, and from humble beginnings it has turned into one of the world’s greatest events.
The city prides itself on the line-ups it manages to attract ever year, managing to get the best in the many artforms being represented. This year is no exception, and a fantastic local and international line-up has been assembled.
A statement from the organisers says: “Visitors in 2007 include Christoph von Dohnányi and the NDR Sinfonieorchester. Trevor Pinnock and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen are joined by Portuguese pianist Maria Joao Pires, while Concerto Köln, the Akademie für Alte Musik and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra form a trio of German chamber orchestras visiting.
”The equally packed stage programme includes a Mozart focus (hardy souls can see Le nozze di Figaro, Cose fan tutte and Don Giovanni on the same day - 25 March!), Puccini's Turandot and the European premiere of the Broadway hit Altar Boyz about a small-town pious pop act. Dance includes more parody in Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and the world premiere of a ballet based on Gone with the Wind.
“Jazz is represented by saxophonist Branford Marsalis and the Nigel Kennedy Quintet and Hungarian film composer Miklós Rósza is featured in an evening. Theatre includes Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, while Heiner Goebbels's wonderful mixture of stage, text and music, Eraritjaritjaka, comes to the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne.”
Meanwhile, running parallel to the musical and theatrical treats, there are art exhibitions, showcasing some of Hungary’s finest painters.
The whole shebang kicks off on March 15th, 2007, and continues until April 1st.
