Shows, concerts and cultural attractions – Budapest is always buzzing. Each week, we gather all of the important happenings taking place in our favourite city so you can plan ahead.
Friday, 2 June
Budapest International Short Film Festival
The Friss Hús (‘Fresh Meat’) short film festival showcases domestic and international features, with the majority screened in English or with English subtitles. Screenings take place at the Puskin cinema over seven days: look out for the finest queer, horror, and international documentary shorts! These sections will include films such as Roadtripper, Women Visiting a City, Christopher At Sea, and Granny's Sexual Life.
See the international programme here, here, here, and here.
Szeláví! Festival
Leave Budapest for one day (or three) and enjoy music, literature, children’s programmes, gastronomy, and a craft fair in the replica of Eger Castle near the Pilis Park Forest. The 3-day-long Szeláví! opens the festival season in style. From Friday to Sunday, local artists will take the stage, so it is a great chance to escape from the city and listen to Hungarian music, even if you are unfamiliar with the performers. Budapest Bár, Galaxisok, László Kollár-Klemencz, Jónás Vera Experiment, Aurevoir, Carson Coma and Platon Karataev are all worth the bus ride.
More details here.
Nasip Kısmet concert
Nasip Kısmet is a Budapest-based Turkish band playing psychedelic folk and ethnic jazz. They are extremely vibrant (read our interview with them here), so if you are up for dancing, snag a ticket to their upcoming concert at Turbina. Hét Hat Club is warming up the stage, blending sounds of Balkan and Gypsy folk with jazz, hip hop and Latin culture.
Get tickets here.
English Comedy Night: Relationships
We hope you are up for a laugh. This Friday, the Hot Paprika Comedy team brings us a themed English stand-up comedy show about butterflies in the stomach, rainbows, smudged makeup and crying over ice cream, aka relationships. Grab a drink, take a seat, and get those diaphragms ready to work. The host of the evening is Bangladeshi student Tauseef Parvez.
Get tickets here.
15th Downtown Festival
The Downtown Festival is a family-friendly event held in several locations in - you guessed it - downtown Budapest. Between 2-4 June, you can see some of the most popular Hungarian musicians (such as Parno Graszt, Csaknekedkislány, MORDÁI or Szabó Balázs Bandája), while there’ll also be a World Music and Nostalgia Stage. Activities will await families, markets and theatre performances will pop up on the streets, and you can do sports too. Best bit? There is no entry fee.
The locations include Szabadság tér, Erzsébet tér, Zrínyi utca, Bástya park, PIM, and V.30 Belvárosi Sportközpont. See the list of the performers here.
Saturday, 3 June
Gourmet Festival 2023
Indulge in the crème de la crème of Hungarian gastronomy! This year's MBH Bank Gourmet Festival showcases the creativity of the country's best chefs, bakers, winemakers, and brewers between 2-4 June. 100 exhibitors will cook up delicious dishes made with a fresh mindset, as the theme of the event is 'New generation'. The offer will be top-notch (we mean it, check it here), so all the foodies should buy their tickets now.
Get tickets here.
Balázs Somorjai: Panel World exhibition
Discover the images of one of the unmissable heritage of Hungarian Socialism: panel buildings (concrete blocks of flats). Photographer Balázs Somorjai, like many Hungarians, lived in one, and this personal attachment led him to photograph the apartments. In the photos, he also included the people living there, which resulted in a witty and exciting social journey. You can still catch it at the Robert Capa Center until Saturday.
More details here.
The Night of Choirs 2023
See a concert in one of the Palace Quarter's unique venues! At this amateur choir festival, melodies will fill the garden of the Szabó Ervin Library, the Hungarian National Museum, Lőrinc Pap Square, and the Chapel of the Parish of Christ the King to spread the power and joy of singing. Hungarian and foreign choirs perform in different genres and at eight venues parallelly - but you might notice them singing on the streets too.
See the events and get tickets here.
Indie Rehab party
Get in the British Mood as iconic concert venue A38 Ship kicks off the summer with an Indie Rehab party. So get on those dancing shoes and sing the night away to the best hits of the Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Tame Impala, The Black Keys, Franz Ferdinand, The Beatles, The Kooks, Crystal Fighters, Oasis, The Last Shadow Puppets, and Killers, among the rest of the crème de la crème of the indie bands.
Get tickets here.
Sunday, 4 June
Movie time at the Bem Cinema
Clouds might float in on Sunday, so if you end up looking for a shelter, we have a plan. Go to the Bem Cinema and watch one - or two - iconic films on the big screen! This Sunday, you can munch on popcorn through Meet the Parents (starting at 5 pm) or American Beauty (starting at 7:30 pm), both screened in their original language.
The Big Market Day
Erzsébet tér turns into a massive market between 11 am - 7 pm this weekend as Budapest's best community-led design fairs and farmers' markets get together. They bring vintage clothes, handcrafted goods, jewellery, natural cosmetics, gastro treats, fruits, veggies, cheese, and other organic products - and you don't even need to get up early to browse them.
Entry is free and dogs are welcome.
Félix Lajkó, ContraBayando (RS) concert
This Sunday, Hungarian violinist, zither player and composer Félix Lajkó takes centre stage at A38. The latest album of the virtuoso genius showcases his talent as an instrumentalist and a leader: musicians with different cultural backgrounds blend a specific East-European sound we have never heard before. Guest performers will be the ContraBayando, playing French chanson, tango, rumba, bossa nova and ethno.
Get tickets here.
