Budapest Spring Festival offers various programs on multiple locations from 22 March until 7 April. You can find concerts, contemporary dance and new circus performances, theatre plays, exhibitions and even walking tours in the city during this cultural fair.In order to help you to navigate between the best options of the great variety of programs, we collected ten must-see events.

1/10

Carmen Cortés and her friends

Carmen Cortés is an internationally acclaimed representative of the passionate flamenco. In her performance she mixes the traditional style with contemporary methods perfectly. Since flamenco is all about putting the Spanish Gypsy groups’ huge emotional dramas to the stage, her irresistible force will take us to the sultry Andalusia.

Where? - Thália Theatre- Main Stage
When? - 22 March, 7 pm

2/10

Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra

The orchestra, which is also called as 100 Violins, is well-known on local and on international level as well. As always, their huge repertoire will be represented in this show. You can get a sense of the Hungarian Spirit (Hungarian rhapsody no 2 by Ferenc Liszt, Hungarian Dance no 5 by Johannes Brahms), for the lovers of the lighter pieces there will be the Csárdás from Victorio Monti, The Gypsy Baron from Johann Strauss and the Ciocarlia (meaning the skylark) from Grigoras Dinicu. If it is not enough, the orchestra will present unique remakes from famous composers, such as Khachaturian, Rossini and Tchaikovsky.

Where? - Thália Theatre - Main Stage
When? - 23 March, 4 pm, 8 pm

3/10

Organ Tour

On 23 March the whole day will be all about the King of instruments. The tour begins in the Palace of Arts at 10 am, where the students of the will explain the basics about playing on an organ, and after it, they will present a short concert. During the day you can find free concerts in the Calvinist Church of Fasor, in the Deák Square Evengelical Church and in the Parish Church of St. Teresa of Avila. For the evening we will return to the Palace of Arts, in the Festival Theatre Dr. Lonnie Smith, who is known as the guru of the Hammond B-3 organ will play with his three friends. Simultaneously, in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, the German pianist, Stephan von Bothmer will perform his accompaniment for Fritz Lang's famous silent film, Metropolis.

Where? - Palace of Arts, Calvinist Church of Fasor, Deák Square Evengelical Church, Parish Church of St. Teresa of Avila
When? - 23 March, All day long

4/10

A Magic Flute - The guest performance of the Theatre des Bouffes du Nord

Peter Brook is the most influential figure of the contemporary theatre. He staged Mozart's masterpiece with the Theatre des Bouffes du Nord from Paris. The visionary director came up with a fresh concept, and created a modern contemporary Magic Flute from the well-known classic.

Where? - Palace of Arts - Festival Theatre
When? - 29 and 30 March, 7 pm

5/10

Patricia Petibon and the Münchener Kammerorchester

The world-class French soprano mesmerizes the audience with her voice and with her appearance everywhere she goes. Patricia Petibon puts on to the stage a classic, but diverse show with the Münchener Kammerorchester. They give you two singer and two instrumental acts. The orchestra presents Mendelssohn's Symphony for Strings No. 10 in B minor and Verdi's String Quartet in E minor, and Petibon will join them for Britten's Les Illuminations and for Dido's Lament from Purcell's opera (Dido and Aeneas).

Where? - Palace of Arts - Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
When? - 1 April, 7.30 pm

6/10

Love Songs

For the lovers of contemporary dance, the Danish Dance Theatre's performance can be the perfect choice. The biggest Danish modern dance company explores the eternally mysterious topic for humanity: love. They use different tools to express themselves at the same time: dance, theatre and jazz.

Where? - Thalia Theatre - Main Stage
When? - 3 April, 7 pm

7/10

Circus in the Night

Budapest Spring Festival cannot miss a contemporary circus act from its programme, since it has become an accepted art form. The Recirquel is a Hungarian company full of young artiste students, they are making their debut with Circus in the Night.

Where? - Palace of Arts - Festival Theatre
When? - 5 April, 7 pm

8/10

An Evening with Ferenc Snétberger (guitar) and Richard Bona (bass guitar)

This will be the world music concert of the festival, where two amazing musicians will take a journey on the field of sounds, but at the same time both of them were influenced by very different kind of genres. Expect to see how African and Gypsy music can meet with spontaneous and joyful jazz.

Where? - Palace of Arts - Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
When? - 5 April, 8 pm

9/10

Verdi Marathon

The famous tunes of Giuseppe Verdi's arias are well known for every audience. We recommend the Verdi Marathon for everyone, it starts at 11:30 am in front of the , where opera singers offer an open-air concert from the Italian maestro's famous arias. Starting from 6 pm Rigoletto is on stage inside the Opera House, and then the marathon finishes once again on , from 9 pm another open air concert will be presented from Verdi's choruses.

Where? - Hungarian State Opera House and in front of the Opera House, on Andrássy út
When? - 6 April, all day long