As soon as the summer heat starts, public spaces in Budapest are filled with life, and hundreds of cultural programs offer possibilities for recreation. Festivals, concerts and outdoor events await those who wish to have fun throughout the capital, where everyone is sure to find a program they like.

For the fourth year in a row, over the summer you can delight in Budapest’s most visited tourist attractions to the accompaniment of music. For three months, the program series called Budapest, the City of Music offers several hundred mini-concerts to please those talking a walk in the capital. Among other locations, you can find chamber orchestras playing music at St. Stephen’s Basilica, Vajdahunyad Castle and on the stairs of Műcsarnok, while at the Castle Garden Foundry Courtyard, audiences can listen to a concert every Sunday morning. Ferenc Snétberger, Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, Zoltán Orosz, Mihály Borbély and the Amadinda Ensemble will await music lovers here this year.

On the occasion of the 80th jubilee season, the Summer Festival will bring audiences even more spectacular productions in 2018. Yes, that’s right: the Margaret Island Open-Air Stage has been enchanting summer evenings for eight decades now; it awaits audiences with large-scale opera and operetta premieres, spectacular ballet performances, as well as classical, popular and crossover music concerts. At the Városmajor Open-Air Stage, you can see theatrical and album premieres, country theatres’ best plays from this year and exciting children’s programs.

One of Hungary’s most successful cultural ambassadors is the Sziget Festival, since there aren’t many young people in Europe who haven’t heard of the week-long music and art cavalcade. Sziget today is synonymous with carefree fun and the unique atmosphere created by the meeting of visitors from more than 100 countries and their cultures. From 8–15 August 2018, Central Europe’s biggest music festival will again await audiences with the best performers in foreign and domestic music, in addition to sensational circus performances and theatrical productions.

You can meet the most authentic representatives of Hungary’s folk crafts again from 17–20 August, while folk music and dance productions liven up the atmosphere at the Festival of Folk Arts in the Buda Castle. It’s truly an unforgettable family program to walk among the fair’s merchandise, while eating kürtőskalács and listening to familiar melodies from the stage. And the Danube bank is only a short walk away from the castle, if you’d like to watch the fireworks on 20th August from the best location.

And these are but a few events from the diverse programs that Budapest offers both to visitors and residents. Don’t hesitate – browse budapestinfo.hu to find the most exciting and entertaining summer programs!

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