Vajdahunyadvar Summer Music
From the 12th July to the 9th of August, Budapest is experiencing one of the most acclaimed parties for its residents and tourists, this is Vajdahunyadvar Sumer Music Festival in Budapest, held in the courtyard of the Vajdahunyadvar castle. This festival has a great agenda that includes classical, swing, klezmer and gypsy music to enliven the summer evenings.
The functions are performed on Mondays and Thursdays, beginning at 20:30 hours. Prices range between 10 € and 20 € depending on the specific program. This years program includes a violin and piano concert by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Vivaldi, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, baroque music, contemporary klezmer, gypsy music and zarzuela.
Music is a very important part of Hungarian culture. Just think back to the Romantic composer and virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt, as well as the pianist, composer, researcher and founder of the etno music, Béla Bartók, two major musicians who belong from the special bond between life and love for music, which is always present in the Hungarian culture.
This special love for music has its origins directly linked to the gypsy people, as you will be able to discover in the Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt written between 1846 and 1885. The Hungarian Rhapsodies are nineteen piano compositions that have versions for orchestra and for duets, in which Liszt music studied the jumps between tones, the absolute freedom of his music and his ability to feel and write his own notes.
Béla Bartók is one of the essential figures of contemporary music and the greatest Hungarian genius. Bartók earlier disclaimed from romanticism and took the sounds of music that manages to collect in a rudimentary phonograph, during his research in remote villages, where he sought the origins of Hungarian music. Then, he expanded his research to the Slovak, Romanian, Arabic and Turkish music, and included them in his compositions.
Zoltán Kodály is also one of the most interesting musicians of Hungary. His music evolved from the post-Romanticism to the search for new colors in the regional music of Hungary and Romania, which merges with complex mixes in his compositions. He worked with Bartók in the research of traditional music, while collecting more than 100 thousand songs. In 1907 he joined the Franz Liszt Academy as Professor, teaching music theory and composition.
These great men of the musical world music represent the special sensitivity of the Hungarians that will stay in the memory of those attending this summer event, which this year brings the best representatives of the music, and for the program Fugata and Orchestra, which has as artistic director Balázs Alpár with Veronika Harcza in voice and Miklós Szenthelyi.
Also, there will be the Chamber Orchestra and the Virtuosi Hungarians by the artistic director and violin soloist Miklós Szenthelyi with László Nyari, Mako Brigitta and Tünde Makó, who will be playing Vivaldi to close the festival.
For more information: http://www.vajdahunyad.hu/english.asp
Nancy Guzman
Music is great therapy, it helps to calm the spirit and gladden the soul. For this and other reasons, renting apartments in Budapest is the best idea for the summer, there you will be able to enjoy this traditional and unique festival.
Spring Music Festival in Budapest
After a hard winter, the return of spring means going out onto the streets again, enjoying some sun and being once again amongst nature, eating al fresco and going to café terraces. This past winter was a lot harder than the last. Perhaps its because of global warming that the seasons are more intense or unstable, with unexpected climate changes that include waves of wind and cold, storms and other phenomenons, so could it be true that its the end of the world in 2012? The human race and the thousands of inventions of its culture are always bordering the apocalypse; that machinery that unites us to death so desperately and that makes the final destruction of the planet something so selfish, eroticized and eventually another product of day to day consumption. Religions and companies, or religions that are companies or companies that are religions, it doesnt matter, just fill us with fear with these ideas that turn out to be false, that separate us from today, the time of action and the constant daily transformation.
Spring is a reason for rejuvenation, rebirth, of new life and light. Of course its related with the green environment of the dry and shadowy forest, the return of flowers and birds in patios and gardens, no other association goes better with love, fertility and the essence of life itself. And so, so many books and poems have been written to spring that wed need more days to count them, comment on and read them all. In the same way, the association of spring and music has always been intense. The processes of musical creation, like spring, can be the result of a large effort in the personal interior darkness that finally bring melodies and rhythms to light, which move us in a thousand different ways and make us more human and, of course, more careful towards the beauty of our humanity.
Despite the contradictions of our time, art and of course music, above all, can bring us back to think about our species, its future and the immense possibility of change that the human race represents. Even more in spring and in a city as poetic as Budapest, which traps you from the first moment of your visit.
The Spring Musical Festival in Budapest is one of the best pretexts to travel and see this beautiful city in a climate that rejuvenates us and with the spirit of seeing contemporary, classical, jazz and folk music as well as the opera from inside in some of the most emblematic places in the city: churches, the Palace of Arts and the Thália Theatre among others. For more information visit the following website: http://www.btf.hu/
Alexa Ray
Get apartments in Budapest and enjoy this important spring music festival. Budapest and its diverse and rich cultural lifestyle await you to wrap you inside it. Without doubt, its one of the most interesting cities in Europe today.
Budapest International Circus Festival
If you love to laugh; you enjoy watching acrobats perform heart-stopping stunts; you like hearing parrots sing songs; and you’d love to see elephants cycling to their heart’s content; then the Budapest International Circus Festival is sure to excite you. This event is being arranged and hosted by the Capital Circus Group from Hungary for the 9th successive year. They present the audience with the best forms of spectacular aerobics and stunt shows from Hungary. The event was last held in 2010, and is hosted every two years in search of new talent. From different corners of Hungary and Europe, budding professionals participate in this show to make a name for themselves and to begin an illustrious career.
When and Where is the Budapest International Circus Festival?
The Budapest International Circus Festival will be held at the Hungarian capital of Budapest from the 2nd to the 6th of February, 2012. This event is a launching platform for many with the involvement of the prominent people in the industry. The jury this year will comprise of people from Canada, Italy, Germany, England and France. The event will also offer Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for a podium finish.
Let the Performers Astonish You!
The Budapest International Circus Festival is a competition presented in the form of a mega event. This year’s event will feature more acts than the last year. There will be thirty-four different breath-taking events and stunts performed by well-picked artists from all over the world. These performers are divided into two different groups, A and B. Group A will perform acts like juggling, Hula-hoop shows, comedy shows, musical clowns, orchestra performances, violin and silk players, high wire performances and a performance of tigers and panthers from Russia. Group B will feature performances like aerial hammocks, golf juggling, dog acts and comedy acts as well.
Like previous years, this year will also witness shows in the format of shows A-B-B-A. These groups will be judged by individuals in the jury. Depending on this judgment the winning group will get an opportunity to perform in the Gala event on the final day. The performers from this winning group A or B will be judged individually for various awards like best Foreign Act, the best Hungarian Act, and the best Pierrot awards. Tickets are available online for international visitors in three categories.
D. Laney
apartments in Budapest will never be the same after this years Budapest International Circus Festival. Take the time to enjoy this event – you wont regret it!
Contemporary Drama Festival Budapest
Theater had a realistic slope for many years. It was not until the late nineteenth century when it started to appear a change in this trend, mainly due to the various artistic vanguards and the advent of modernity. So, thanks to advances in visual media through symbolism and abstraction, theater took a step to higher levels of representation, staging and proposals. Today, contemporary drama uses a variety of new resources ranging from video, installation and increasingly minimal and conceptual staging, in which new records interact with aesthetic, political, current and controversial stories.
Perhaps the greatest example of total contemporary theater is the King Ubu by Alfred Jarry, a piece with multiple variations and recurring themes, works both the in stage and the subject matter from a political irony and humor truly amazing for its time. Jarry was a visionary, and as such, a precursor of Dadaism and other “isms” of the time. The curious thing about a piece like King Ubu, is that besides its high sarcasm, questioning the political environment of its time, anarchic and volatile capacity, is structured from the meaning and quite complex language games, in which the reader or anyone who witnesses the piece, simply get carried away by logic staged games. In this work, too, shedding is minimal nature of the staging of contemporary art.
Antonin Artaud took a step forward in creating theater. With his theories on the “Theatre of Cruelty,” Artaud not only proposes new means even more abstract and metaphysical included in the staging. It was after his explorations in Mexico with peyote in the Tarahumara tribes Theatre Artaud understood as a profound exploration of the unconscious, which also reveals a ritualistic nature scene on the set. So Artaud makes plays in their colors appear as substances, or occurrences that increased the volume on stage. What encourages Artaud is not stable look over the world, but rather quite the contrary. Artaud reveals the short depth of human spirit and the horror of the void, the inability to be present or be in the unrecognized breath by breath, no more than a pathetic construction of meanings around us, and that reality invention is also empty, no other culture density that gives, and which confuses us, contra lateral and manipulated.
The Contemporary Drama Festival Budapest has over ten years. During this period, there have been more than a hundred international performances in the festival, which each year continues to cause interest at the Hungarian public as well as internationally. The festival is a very interesting space in which new proposals for theater and performance converse, mingle, and generate new creations. For more information, visit the following website: http://dramafestival.hu/
Alexa Ray
Get apartments in Budapest and enjoy the best in current drama.
Translated by: Hans
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Budapest Autumn Festival
Autumn is usually that time of the year that is often taken for granted, to which no one pays attention to. What I mean is that summer is always a solid block of heat and high temperatures while winter is bitter cold, it snows in some parts and there are fewer opportunities to leave home. Spring and autumn move from one pole to another. But autumn holds the promise of the end of an era, the days transfer from heat to a more comforting temperature. During fall longer walks occur due to the nice cozy weather, riding bikes, drinking coffee on the streets or just smoking a cigarette while the leafs fall of the trees is a tradition practiced by many. The smell in the streets also changes, the dry tree leafs spreads through the air, after every step you hear the rustle of the leafs under your shoes. Transiting through the city becomes more peaceful and especially if you live in a city like Budapest, the influx of tourists and walking is reduced and the center becomes more comfortable and interesting.
Budapest yet, despite the large number of tourists coming to the streets, does not reach the degree of madness that places like Paris, London, New York and Berlin have during their summers. Summer in New York for example, is very uncomfortable with so many tourists on the subway checking their maps lost in the vastness of the underground, filling the streets of Times Square photographing every single moving object, eating junk, food. The Eiffel Tower in Paris fills with never ending cues of people, the Thames river is plagued by a line of people taking photos. But Budapest, despite much of its tourism its magic remains intact. Imagine walking in autumn through the streets, feeling the beauty of the people of Hungary, enjoying your meal in the temperate climate of autumn without any haste, strolling through the ancient and romantic streets this wonderful city has to offer its visitors
Another reason to be in Budapest is the Autumn Festival taking place in this city every year. During these days, Budapest is full of options You can listen to or see the best art, music, photography, sculpture, dancing and many more experimental arts and fashion as well as all the new multimedia technology. Exhibitions and film screenings complete this great event. This is a feast for any art lover or anyone who wants to know more of what is done today in the world of contemporary expression.
For more information, visit the following website : http://www.fesztivalvaros.hu/
Alexa Ray
Get apartments in Budapest and discover the wonders that this city has to offer during fall, along with its its vibrant cultural scene that has something for everyone. Do not miss this opportunity during fall, where it is also possible to find very comfortable flights and mingle with people on the streets more in talking mood than in a smashing bars one. Budapest Autumn magic just for you and your people.
Translated by: Marc
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Bonusz in Budapest: Festival of Electronic Music
The effects of electronic music are probably different than those of other musical genres. Although the rhythm is repetitive, songs random and a constant mix of rhythm, voice and interpretation electronic music reaches the senses deeper than any other musical genre. Furthermore, the constant drug use at festivals, raves and underground parties leads to a more intense experience that opens our imagination, desire and body at parties come close to rituals in certain moments, one could call them technological. The inicial interest in electronic muisic derived from the experimentation with several effects and devices that generated frequencies for over 50 years. Eletronic music entered our daily life as an established music genre with many different forms and possibilities to dance and listen to with technology that continues to advance and new possibilities to create effects through computers.
Maybe it was the psychodelic master Timothy Leary who with his talks about LSD and its effect on the body who it itself represents an electronic machinery claimed that drug use will broaden the limits of our minds and with these new bodies through which we carry electronic impulses we reach new levels of imagination and reality which meant a possible evolution through the stimulants of LSD.
Leary caused such inspiration in the German community creator of thel Krautrock, amongst whom the electro’s fathers, Kraftwerk, it would be essential for us to understand that experience of mental and sensory expansion had to be done with effects and electronic devices: synthesizers.
Kraftwerk’s career till today needn’t be mentioned now, but it is to understand that resolution of the electronic effect in the sound has been changing with the different tools and devices that are used today, both for electronic music generation as in its reproduction. This way, electronic music festivals are pilgrimage events, of a subculture that without even realizing, is already a great part of the system. So much that there is already very few it can be offered and which it could re-assimilate as a chance or aspect towards the mainstream side. The festival corporation is present all around as we know, and it is not but from this corporation that one can better understand the music today and conglomeration it causes, as well as its reactions. Our links with PCs are today so close that thinking of moving away from electronic music and its possibilities is crazy. We are closer and closer of a future which, as Blade Runner said, implies an electronic Hill and artificial life, perhaps music is our insertion path in a future which is already happening, against our wills, and from our senses.
To live electronic music, come to Budapest and be part of this festival that is the best event of the year. For further info, visit this page: http://www.bonuszfesztival.hu/2011/
Alexa Ray
Find apartments in Budapest and be a part of this event, which brings you the best of todays electronic music. Highly recommended.
Translated by: Maria
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20th International Wine Festival in Budapest
The pleasures of wine are told from remote times. This pleasant drink has accompanied the whole world during millenniums and its a true traditional in a large part of the tables in the Western world. The relation of wine with culture are diverse and deep, as is its symbology that goes from the religious rituals to pagan and profane ones. It is, undoubtedly, the drink that blesses churches and turns into Christs blood, with the sacred elixir that encourages intoxication, poetical deliriums and sexual romance. And theres nothing more exciting that wine to increase the temperatures at the time of making love. Many of the well-known poets have sung odes to wine and its delicacies, the chaos that it provokes, its magical power and the inspiration that it produces.
Charles Baudelaire, father of modern poetry without a shadow of a doubt, is one of the main poets that made of wine a constant subject and from which many lessons can be learned. In his poetry, wine is a powerful narcotic that not only becomes the inciter of lust and passions, the blood of the lamb that spills and drinks to reach those Artificial Paradises that he talked about so much and he provoked with his harmonious and melancholic writings, but at the same time, in the voluptuous condition that, in the intoxication from wine, you can reach states of illumination and sacred pronunciation. Thats how wine provokes visions, brilliant ideas, even miraculous, and its the drink where dark and secret poetry reside.
Thats how the ancestral ceremonies to Baccus are a type of calling to the invocation of the unseen. The stupor that wine generates makes of the body a tame machinery for the gathering of imagination and dreams. And effectively, dreaming under the influences of wine becomes an experience that is blurred and filled with images of many colours. At the same time, wine incites lust and sexual desire in men and women, and is therefore the nocturnal drink that best favours romance. Imagine what it must be like to have some wine in Budapest and in the International Wine Festival. Certainly, a favourable moment for romance and to meet beautiful people who are open to adventure. This international festival takes place every year where thousands of exhibitors from around the world participate, as well as music, meetings and, above all, the animated participation of thousands of people searching for the perfect wine, the sweetest aroma that the mind can manage, romance and, who knows, maybe love too. For more information and the timetables of events of this festival on each day, visit this webpage: http://www.aborfesztival.hu/
Alexa Ray
What better than getting apartments in Budapest and be part of this international festival with the best wine and where you will surely find someone with who to share it with and spend a moment of sensuality, party and beauty in one of the most romantic cities in the whole of Europe.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Jewish Summer Festival in Budapest
Festivals can also be a way to maintain the spirit of an important cultural tradition and keep it alive. Not everything is the market, industry and noise this summer, there are also options, although a bit more classic and traditional, that grant you the opportunity to enjoy with other people a different culture, or maybe yours, and learn a bit more and even enjoy with the family.
Thats how, the Jewish Summer Festival has been taking place in Budapest since 1998 thanks to the organization of the Cultural Centre of Jewish Tourism which is in the city. The centre of all festivities is no less than the Synagogue on Dohany Street, possibly the biggest and most spectacular synagogue in Europe. The synagogue isnt just one of the most beautiful places to visit in Budapest but also an ancestral symbol of Jewish culture in the city. Much before they began to organize the festival, concerts already took place in this synagogue. However, it wasnt until they had the initiative of this festival that the synagogue became a true concert hall. As part of the organization of the festival, one has to highlight that in 2006 they inaugurated the synagogue on Rumbach Sebestyen street to the public, built by the Viennese architect Otto Wagner, and therefore attracting even more visitors and public in general.
At the festival, Jewish culture is represented by different performances, concerts, exhibitions, open air programmes for the younger ones, crafts, book market and other artistic forms. As the centre of all events, the musical genre Klezmer is put forward. Klezmer is a genre that comes from the Jewish-Hebrew tradition from Eastern Europe. This style is played by professional musicians called klezmorim. The genre consists especially in dance and instrumental pieces for weddings and other celebrations. Although the genre has its origins in Eastern Europe, this style in particular has been developed more and was made popular in the United States during the Yiddish Jews immigrations between 1880 and 1924. However, little is known about the true origins of this folkloric music which is so unique and cheerful.
With the years, the festival hasnt stopped growing and its still expanding. This years programme has renown international artists. Budapest is, undoubtedly, the best place for this type of festival. Its streets never cease to have an aura of light and charm during the summer. The walks in Budapest always become infinite and the options to have fun never end. This Jewish Summer Festival is just another occasion for which the city is visited by many more tourists, and not just Jewish ones. With every year that goes by, the city keeps becoming more and more cosmopolitan, without losing its traditional and romantic style. Maybe thats why this festival is so welcome here. For more information and programmes of this event, you can visit the festivals webpage and there you can also find information on tickets, artists and other activities.
http://www.zsidonyarifesztival.hu/
Alexa Ray
The best thing is to get apartments in Budapest and not miss out on the chance to be part of one of the most interesting festivals this summer. You can also meet beautiful people everywhere. Summer in Budapest is like a dream.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Sziget Festival in Budapest
Budapest is delightful. Theres never a lack of beautiful people everywhere, above all the proportionate and exotic Hungarian women, who will captivate you by just looking at them. Budapest carries on growing and, as such, its turning more and more cosmopolitan as we speak. Sziget Festival is an option to listen to some of the best bands on the planet in beautiful Budapest, for five whole days, as well as getting to know people from around the world, who are always searching for adventure, romance and crazy times.
Among the participants in the festival we can find Interpol, the New York band that along the years has known how to capitalize its image, sound and provenance. A band from New York is, at the end of the day, a band from New York and everyone knows that. Despite that, their last album, titled “Interpol”, leaves that band in a very uncomfortable position. To put it simply, if before they were Joy Division, now theyre just U2. Their best song is still “Turn on the bright lights”, a really amazing night-time album which is post-9/11, which managed to portray in their lyrics the isolation, shadow, frivolity and insecurities of the city that never sleeps.
From Australia we receive Empire of the Sun, a band that with their single “Walking on a Dream” from 2008, hasnt stopped impressing and delighting live. They have a pop-rock sound which borders romantic and new wave, with a paraphernalia of clothing and cosmic attire.Their videos are clear homages to nature and the cosmos, generally in remote locations, which create a world of fantasy and colour that seduces and invites one to dance. Its worth seeing their videos and, live, as well as video screens and lasers, the use all sorts of choreography to create a very personal universe.
Amongst the other crowd favourites we can find Pulp, Kate Nash, The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Rise Against, British Sea Powder, Triggerfinger and Peter Bjorn and John. The summer festivals in Europe and around the world today, are a huge way of sound trafficking, trying to save the industry which is plummeting. Despite that, you can have a good time if you want to. Checking out this events website, you dont need much to see the way in which the younger bands sell themselves, generally older is better, and it happens in many of the festivals now. Which will be the new sound to appear? Who knows.
It seems like rock sound would have stopped at some point in nostalgia, where few people still listen to it without having much knowledge that things are changing. The media, internet, Twitter and Facebook are responsible that the final product of any musical or artistic experience is the relay of this information. Its not very important how many times its played but to how many people it can reach. Meanwhile, Sziget Festival is a good place to start. For more information and tickets visit this webpage: http://www.sziget.hu/
Alexa Ray
Theres nothing like getting apartments in Budapest and enjoying these five days with the best bands in the world today.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Crosstalk: Video-Art Festival in Budapest
Video art is one of the most used ways of artistic expression in todays world. From the first experiments that took place at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s by people like Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol or Fred Forest, the use of the video as a way of support, it has been used as well as an undisputed catalyst of images and resolutions, colour textures and moving figures, as an entrance so that sound can be more relevant in galleries and museums, chained to the image, in which way it became essential in performances, facilities and exhibitions. And, of course, despite cinematography and television already being audio and image united as issuers of meaning, on the other hand, the video gives any camera user enough potential to become the generator of visual and sound realities and the possibility of telling a story or changing history. The experience of the apprehension of the video is completely different. Its not cinema, its not TV, its video!
That way, the democratic encounter with the video, is in understanding the rest of the possibilities that it holds and will hold. Today, all of us are potential video artists, from our multiple webcams, computers and webpages. The visual consumer of this time isnt passive and shouldnt stop being so. Recently, via YouTube, weve been able to be aware of peaceful, political movements in different countries, thanks to tapes that were uploaded onto the net in real time, informing a public who is ever-desiring for fresh information and, above all, with the will to want to “share” images, sounds, videos, art, etc. Its funny to acknowledge that in the first experimental experiences with video, there are the first traces of video games, digital animation, 3D, current advertising and pornography.
And thus, the information unfolds around the world quicker and quicker and more precisely all the time. What we call “sharing” from social networks, is closer to a viral or contagious process, where information cant stop and runs its course. Video art, with all of its potential and the tradition that it represents, has contributed during the last twenty years to create better communication and serving platforms, from its experimentalism to developing better information transmission methods on the net. The video art culture, it has to be said, comes in the same way with the sounds of electronica, digital curiosity and mass media. All of these phenomenons, discussions and projections of the best European video art, can be found at Crosstalk Festival of Video Art in Budapest, which will take place in July. For more information on the event, as well as timetables and presentations, visit this website which will shortly be updated: http://crosstalk.hu/
Alexa Ray
Nothing better than renting apartments in Budapest and getting to know the best European video art. Have a great time, also, in one of the cities with more history and beauty that remain on the old continent. Art is always the best excuse to find new friends and problems.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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