Cultural life restarts in Veszprém and at Lake Balaton

“We have started working together with event organisers who share with us the values of the European Capital of Culture programme, and this way we can work towards common goals. What is most important for us is to turn Veszprém and Balaton into a new national and European creative region. All the events organised by our team are designed to serve the aims of the ECoC programme. Our first large-scale event, which also involves the Lake Balaton area, is Filmpicnic, with the idea in mind to bring back film as an art form into the region,”- Dr. Tibor Navracsics, ECoC Government Commissioner told us.

Several thousand visitors are expected at Veszprém-Balaton Filmpicnic . Organisers have opted for atmospheric open-air and urban venues to produce an exciting space where Hungarian films can meet their audiences after the epidemic, and precisely for this reason, screenings will all be free.

From 3rd to 5th September, award winning works of the Hungarian Motion picture Festival may be seen at the country’s newest cinematic event, with accompanying meetups between viewers, filmmakers and actors.

Veszprém Street Music Festival has also been moved to late August (26th to 29th) from its usual time of July. Every year, Street Music is one of the highlights of Veszprém’s summer, when streets are flooded by people who come to listen to musicians invited here from all over the world. Because the main concept of the festival is to present world-class talent and quality street musicians and their productions, with almost no restrictions in style, visitors are practically guaranteed to leave the town with a few new favourites in their hearts. Evening concerts by international street music stars are preceded by a competition of Hungarian talents in the afternoons, as the festival is also a functioning talent show.

Several successful bands (Punnany Massif, Mary Popkids, Szabó Balázs Band, Fran Palermo) received their first boost at Street Music.

Rosé, Riesling and Jazz Days , organised for the 10th time this year, likewise has new dates: 16th to 23rd August with Veszprém’s Óváros (Old Town) Square as the venue. Originally conceived to accompany VeszprémFest (which unfortunately has had to be cancelled this year), this event offers gastroculture fans an assortment of excellent wines from Lake Balaton region cellars, artisanal foods, and young representatives of Hungary’s jazz and related music scenes.

It was in a single little village called Kővágóörs that Kőfeszt (StoneFest) was organised last year: from 2020 six other villages of the Kál Basin have joined up. At the festival lasting three days between 27th and 29th August, programmes which connect the villages will be thematically and chronologically linked. Folklore is the main focus of this comprehensive arts festival, but the interested public may also attend a wide range of contemporary popular music, theatre and literary programmes, too.

World Music Day, 1st October will see a joint concert of Veszprém music ensembles for the 14th time this year at Lovassy László Secondary Grammar School. 

Veszprém and the Bakony-Balaton region have traditionally offered a rich cultural menu, which makes it possible for the organisers of the European Capital of Culture programme to collaborate with a wide range of other events. Ath the end of the summer collaboration will start with the Auer Lipót International Music Festival, The Festival of the DANCE, the Salvatore Quasimodo Poetry Festival, and the Music Hungary Conference.