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Whether you enjoy listening to soulful jazz tunes, admiring stomping folk-dance moves, immersing in contemporary museum displays, or attending moving theater shows, the Budapest Spring Festival has you covered. With more than 120 programs offered across the city’s major cultural hotspots, including the Hungarian State Opera, the Palace of Arts, the Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest Jazz Club, or the Akvárium Klub, the 2017 edition of this annual artistic gathering presents excitingly enlightening events to visitors for almost one month. Even though the highly anticipated John Malkovich one-man show was sold out almost immediately after it was announced, and many of the Spring Festival’s other major performances have already been fully booked, there are still plenty of prominent programs to choose among, and some of them are even free to attend.
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Festival Opening Promenade
On April 1st at 11am, hundreds of professional and amateur dancers, singers, and musicians parade through the city’s central locations, including , Szent István Square, , and , all to celebrate springtime’s arrival with raucous revelry. The show concludes at , where the performers present a grand cultural spectacular that anyone can join.
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Akvárium Spring Terrace
One of Budapest’s most popular downtown hangouts is joining the Budapest Spring Festival with daily acoustic concerts and Sunday shows for children, happening on the wide open-air staircase of every day throughout the event. Furthermore, the place’s indoor concert halls will host international musicians, including José González performing an eccentric folk-rock concert on April 4th, or Brooklyn-born singer Matt Simons on April 11th.
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Georg Baselitz exhibition
Featuring a vast selection of dynamic paintings and sculptures by contemporary German artist Georg Baselitz, the ’s springtime exhibition reveals the master painter’s signature humor, his provocative attitude, and his obsessive belief in tradition. The exhibition is on view from April 1st through July 2nd.
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Feast of Hungarian Jazz
Talented Magyar musicians take the stage to entertain jazz lovers with soulful concert shows, spanning three days and showcasing a number of ensembles at the . On April 6th, the performances – starting at 7pm – are open for anyone to enjoy free of charge, while on April 7th and 8th, the concerts are accessible for those who hold tickets for the event.
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Korean Cultural Days
South Korea comes to the city’s whale-shaped complex to demonstrate for guests what life is like in this fascinating Asian country. Happening on April 8-9, visitors are introduced to the Korean language, the country’s traditional arts and dance forms, and the nation’s characteristic cuisine, while on Saturday at 8pm, Coreyah – a new-age K-pop band – throws a lively concert.
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Opus 2 contemporary-circus show
Admire amazing acrobatic stunts and virtuoso movement forms performed by the Circa contemporary circus ensemble on April 10th at the , Budapest’s primary cultural center. This lively show, inspired by Russian composer Dmitrij Shostakovich, is presented to the audience by seven acrobats, while a live string quartet accompanies the electrifying extravaganza.
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OCD Love dance spectacle
On April 14th, Budapest’s will host a techno-infused dance show on stage, a joint cooperation of two major representatives of contemporary Israeli art, Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar. The appealing act presents how sensual urban-tribal desires pulsate in a detached, mechanical world, all performed to pumping beats composed by this formation’s third member, Ori Lichtic.
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Yasmine Hamdan concert
After her sold-out Budapest debut in 2015, Lebanon-born Yasmine Hamdan returns to Hungary’s capital on April 15th to throw a great gig at , the city’s unique concert venue built aboard a repurposed Ukrainian cargo boat. Besides singing songs from her latest album, Yasmine will be joined onstage by Hungarian-Swedish singer Antonia Vai.
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Daniele Gatti and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Leading the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, outstanding concert conductor Daniele Gatti and his ensemble play onstage on April 17th at the to unveil two distinct sides of Vienna, featuring works by two great maestros of Viennese history, Franz Schubert and Anton Webern.
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Budapest Art Week
Launched in Hungary’s capital in 2016, the second edition of this artful initiative is set to embrace varied programs related to classical and contemporary visual arts by demonstrating local trends and introducing artists and their works to a wide audience. Anyone who gets tickets for Budapest Art Week, happening on April 18-23, can visit 70 different exhibitions across 60 museums and galleries with just one pass.
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Adam: Le Corsaire – premiere
Inspired by The Corsair, Lord Byron’s famous tale in verse, this ballet act is a thrilling story filled with adventure, where love, betrayal, life-threatening danger, and the ultimate escape are all intertwined. The sophisticated performance will be showing in three acts at the on April 21st.
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Budapest Photo Street Festival
From April 21-23, turns into an alfresco festival center dedicated to photography, with multiple shipping containers featuring miniature exhibits along the downtown lane. During the event, photo buffs can embark on a time-transcending journey spanning vintage and cutting-edge picture-taking technologies at two of the street’s prominent locales, at the and at the .
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