Budapest Autumn Festival

The Budapest Autumn Festival to be held this year for the eighteenth time, is now one of Europe’s leading festivals of the contemporary arts.

The festival was established by the Municipality in 1992, as a successor to the Budapest Arts Weeks, with a focus on contemporary arts. Its aim is to present to the public of Budapest the important creative artists and achievements in all branches of the arts in the present and over the past decade. The series of events sets itself the task of making new art known and recognised in Hungary.

One of the major aims of the festival is to contribute to realisation of the concept of “Budapest, festival city” and to reinforce Budapest’s cultural standing in Europe and its image as an important European cultural centre, by inviting internationally renowned productions of new art and presenting its own or joint productions able to arouse international attention.

Programs

Venues

Tickets

Critical Mass Budapest 2009 September

On Car Free Day 2009, Critical Mass Budapest will again organize a large scale ride to promote bicycling – one of the most environmentally friendly forms of travel – and to raise awareness about the need to improve cycling conditions in the city. Assembling will start at 5:30 PM by encircling the Budapest City Hall block with thousands of locked bikes. The ride will then begin with a bike lift at 6:35 PM, without any specifically set route, to circle around the Big Ring Road (Nagykörút), and end with another bike lift at 8:00 PM at City Hall Park. This ride will allow participants to travel from the start to the finish in normal traffic, without any streets being closed by the police. Traffic laws will be respected.

DATE: Tuesday, September 22, 2009

TIME:
5:30 PM - Bicycle cordon around City Hall & Kidical Mass
6:35 PM - Ride begins with bike lift, circles around Big Ring Road
8:00 PM - Bike lift at City Hall Park

ROUTE: from City Hall Park around The Big Ring Road (Nagykörút) back to City Hall Park

IMPORTANT: Since no streets will be closed off for the event, people not used to bicycling in the capital city traffic should exercise extra caution: it is advised that they follow the larger groups of bicyclists on a safe route. The organisers also request that participants abide by all traffic laws, including the use of appropriate lights during the evening hours and the avoidance of riding on sidewalks. (source)

Élő Duna - Living Danube project

The ÉlőDuna project is currently the largest environmental investment to be implemented in Europe by 2010, which will fundamentally modernise the waste water treatment system and technology of Budapest, resulting in a significant increase of capacity, and as a result, the water of the Danube at Budapest will be clean again within a few years.

Beside its environmental significance, the project is not only outstanding in terms of its total budget, but it is also considered to be one of the most outstanding European projects in terms of the seven project elements to be constructed, the public procurement processes involved and the numerous cooperating partners to be included.

The wastewater treatment plant to be built on the northern part of the Csepel Island will ensure that the proportion of the biologically treated wastewater discharged to the river will rise to 95%, from the current value of 45 % due to the fact that the plant will be able to treat 350 thousand m3 of the daily 600 thousand m3 wastewater. The technology to be used will allow the complete vicinity of the plant to remain a green belt zone by occupying only the smallest area possible from the surface available. The plant will employ a closed-loop technology, complying with stringent noise and odour emission norms.

From the 790 thousand households of Budapest, approximately 600 thousand cubic meters of wastewater is discharged into the Danube every day. Only less than 50 % of this amount is treated biologically with the present capacity of the capital’s wastewater treatment plants. Taking into account the amount of rainwater, it can be concluded that the larger proportion of wastewater is discharged into the river without biological treatment. This is not only a significant environmental load, but also has public health effects on the life of citizens living in the capital and along the banks of the Danube.

The Central Wastewater Treatment Plant will provide an answer to these problems, which, along with the necessary facilities, will be built by 2009 on Csepel Island. With the implementation of this environmental super-project with a budget of €529,1 million (of which €428,7 million was acknowledged to be cost by the EU Commission) and €304,7 million in support from the Cohesion Fund, Budapest – converging to numerous other European cities – will also have the capacity suited to manage the wastewater treatment services of the city with a population of 1,8 million.

Ben Hur live in Budapest

Ben Hur Live

2009. December 11-12. Budapest Sports Arena

50 years after the celebrated film of Ben Hur. Step back 2,000 years and experience the spectacular creation, BEN HUR LIVE. Fifteen years in the making by renowned producer Franz Abraham, BEN HUR LIVE will take live entertainment to a new dimension.

Be amazed by the legendary chariot race - in high speed, with five authentic quadriga chariots - and be awed by an incredible sea battle with galleys and extraordinary, daring stunts. BEN HUR LIVE is a 360-degree experience on a 2,500 square metre stage, telling the love story of Judah and the beautiful slave girl Esther, set during the time of Christ.

It leads the audience on a fantastic journey, through deserts, on high seas, and into the hectic crowds of an Arabian bazaar - a truly dazzling kaleidoscope of human life and breathtaking action, in the world‘s biggest arena production.

Ticket order

Address of location:	1143 Budapest, XIV. kerület, Stefánia út 2.
Name of location:	Papp László Budapest Sportaréna
Location´s tel.:	1/422-2600, 1/422-2603

10th ARC

ARC is an initiative established by Gábor Bakos, Péter Geszti and Barna Fatér in 1999. Since then every September you can see at times provocative at times creative or shocking posters created by talented Hungarian people and featured by the ARC project.

This year they encouraged people to react to the recent crisis we all experience under the title "Restart, rerouting".

An other initiative of them in cooperation with Water Works of Budapest was asking applicants to create billboards to popularize tap water.

The exhibited posters and billboards are the selection of the best works.

(csapvíz= tap water)

Location: Ötvenhatosok square (right beside the Heroes' Square)

Time: 03.09.2009 - 22.09.2009.

www.arcmagazin.hu

18th Budapest International Wine Festival 2009

Wine Exhibition and Fair: 9th -13th September 2009


„Wine is a part of the history of countries, an expression of national character, a source of problems and pleasures.”

In September of 2009, for eightteenth time, the Budapest International Wine and Festival is realised. The Wine Festival had grown into the most highly regarded and popular professional event and combined arts festival of Central Europe, where each year many tens of thousands learn the art of sophisticated wine consumption and get to know the wine makers and the traditions associated with viniculture.

Take a look at a sampler of this year’s colorful series of programs! (source: www.borkultura.hu)

Spot: the terraces of Buda Castle
Date: 9th -13th September 2009
Opening hours
on 9th, 10th: 14:00 – 23:00
on 11th: 12:00 – 23:00
on 12th, 13th: 10:00 – 23:00

MOL Jazz Festival 2009

In 2009, we will mount the 7th MOL Budapest Jazz Festival, that has become a highly-acclaimed and key Ferencváros event over the years.

This year, it will be a 5-day Festival of jazz (September 9-13) and we do hope that the events taking place in several Ferencváros venues will again attract large audiences. This year, the programme will focus on balti jazz. Alongside internationally-acclaimed leading jazz musicians, Hungarian jazz musicians will again play a strong role in the various Festival events.

As in previous years, there will be large-scale opening and closing concerts at the Budapest Palace of Arts, to provide a framework for this Celebration of Hungarian Jazz.

We do hope that this uniquely rich programme, that includes 36 performances in various styles of jazz, at distinguished locations, and supported by excellent sound technology, will attract both regular and new jazz fans.

THE PROGRAM

Contacts:

Budapest Music Center
H-1093 Budapest, Lónyay u. 41., Hungary
tel: +36 1 216 7894
Fax: +36 1 216 7897