Cultural life

Budapest has an enormous supply of cultural programs - there are over thirty theaters for its less than two million inhabitants and at least a dozen alternative theater formations, about thirty movie theaters, countless museums and art galleries, and festivals all year round - see more about that in our section called 'Festivals'.

But first of all let's see what the Hungarian musical scene has to offer you, for music doesn't require any knowledge of Hungarian, and you can get acquainted with some of the most successful orchestras and opera singers even before your trip to Hungary at their New York concerts, because they perform in the States frequently.

This small country has given great names to the world, such as Bela Bartok and Franz Liszt, whose music is known and performed everywhere worldwide, or Zoltan Kodály, a great composer and a great personality who revolutionized music education by using a combination of new pedagogical methods, later named after him. (See Wikipedia about the Kodály method). Apart from these great talents of the 20th century, Hungary has many contemporary composers and musicians to be proud of, from the genres of classical, jazz, and folk music alike - such as György Kurtág, László Dés, Zoltán Snétberger, Felix Lajko, or Bea Palya, some of whom perform regularly abroad. Hungarian singers and dancers have performed on the stages of all the great concert halls in the world, from the Carnegie Hall to the Metropolitan Opera. Budapest has also excellent venues to offer, as much for them, as for the many international stars who regularly come to Budapest. Among all these great venues, including the State Opera and the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, the Palace of Arts stands out with its cutting edge acoustics. Another exciting cultural spot in Budapest is Trafó, which used to be an old transformer house (hence the name), an arts incubator and alternative arts center, or in the words of its creator and director, an institution, a building, a space, a medium, an intellectual adventure. It focuses on modern dance and theater, even alternative circus productions, but it purposefully doesn't obtain a resident company.

Hungarian Art:

The art of a small country is always a private affair, and this is especially true of the art of the past. Still, those who spend an hour strolling through the 19th century Hungarian Painting exhibition will not regard it as a waste of time. Do not bother with the strangely spelled names and unknown historic figures. The paintings which take up one floor of the gallery breathe a definite awareness of life. Hungarian painting developed its unique character during the Romantic era. It has a deeply sentimental way of painting, and even has some elements of romantic horror. Late 19th century painting may seem familiar to foreign visitors - impressionism and other developments became popular in a rapidly developing Budapest, which, like Vienna, was a flourishing intellectual center. Hungarian painting has one mysterious, lonely genius - Tivadar Csontvary Kosztka (1853 - 1919).

Hungarian Photography:

The great talents of Hungarian Photography will almost certainly sound familiar to you, for several of the world's most renowned photographers came from Hungary. Kertész, Brassai, Munkácsi, Capa, and others. But whilst they were making their names abroad, their lesser known contemporaries stayed behind.

Now, beautiful modern prints of some of their photographs are available at very reasonable prices from the Mai Manó Ház bookshop, and are great for home decoration. (The Mai Manó Ház itself is also worth visiting, both for the sake of the peculiarity of the building and the exhibitions. VI. district Nagymező utca 20.)

If your're a collector of art, and you are willing to spend a couple of hundred dollars, you can find great vintage copies in Vintage Gallery (V. Magyar utca 26.)

Festivals:

Culture matters everywhere, yet Budapest is by all means an over cultured city, and the reasons for this is mainly historical. Such a large variety of theaters and dance companies, orchestras and choirs would be more suitable for a metropole, three times the size and importance of contemporary Budapest. As a matter of fact, Hungary was once three times its current size, and during the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy it was considered one of Europe's most important cultural centers. Culture never stopped mattering here, not even during the Communist era, because at the time culture was the cheapest quality entertainment people could get an access to.

As the size and importance of the country shrank, her cultural density grew accordingly. Therefore all these assembles need to have the opportunity to showcase their talent aside from the conventional channels, and so there is a festival going on virtually every weekend of the year, an even more in the summer. (Impresarios often complain that there are so many opportunities to listen to quality music for free that people are growing reluctant to pay for more than a symbolic sum of money for concert tickets.)
Although we will try to organize your tours taking into consideration some of the festivals, we would like to suggest that you check our event calendar before booking your 3G tour, so that the dates you choose will coincide with a festival of you choice. (We will always make sure that you have the chance to attend the events you would like to, the program of the tour notwithstanding.)

Some of our favorite festivals are the wine festival, the Cafe Budapest Festival and the Budapest Spring Festival, but these are just a few among the many-many options you will find in the event calendar.