20 August – More than 100 programmes in Budapest

More than a hundred programs await those who celebrate Hungary's birthday in the capital this year. The free festival, which starts on August 18, will be crowned with spectacular fireworks on the evening of the 20th.

Linked to the largest national holiday, St. Stephen's Day, more than twenty event venues offer a varied programme offer. You can taste traditional Hungarian food and enjoy the diversity of cultural and musical programmes, the organisers told MTI on Tuesday.
As they wrote, this year's celebration is also an opportunity to explore Budapest and its historical heritage.
Traditional state events continue to be the backbone of the programme offer in 2023: the programme of the 20 August holiday starts with the raising of the flag and the celebration of St. Stephen's Day, followed by an air parade, the festive Mass and the Holy Right procession, while in the evening the fireworks close the programme.
The traditional, decades-old evening program illuminates the sky with 34,000 pyrotechnic effects shot from 230 launch points on the Danube section between Margaret Bridge and Petőfi Bridge, and on Szabadság and Erzsébet Bridge.
In the framework of the three-day event series, visitors can see the iconic Golden Train, originally built in 1938, and the spectacular installations of the flags and counties of 348 Hungarian cities, as well as the 102 cities of historic Hungary, on the promenade of the Towns, while the heroes of the Hungarian nation can be met in the framework of the Heroes' Road program series.
In the Street of Hungarian Flavours, the gastro culture of the Carpathian Basin is presented, and at the Csárda Festival, the selection of the country's most popular taverns awaits the visitors.
In the music programme, Retro Tabán awaits fans of pop and rock music, with performers including Charlie, Rózsi Demjén and Neoton Família. Fans of classical music can listen to their favourite melodies at the Panorama Classical venue in the Garden of Philosophers, while at the new programme venue in Vigadó Square, fans of bar music are welcome at Vigadó Piano. Electronic and live music will be played at Road Movie Live and Szabadrét Festival, including concerts by Bagossy Brothers Company, Tankcsapda and Mystery Gang.
The Fashion & Design Festival, featured for the third time in the St. Stephen's Day programme series, welcomes those interested in Hungarian fashion, jewellery and design at a new venue this year, the Millenáris Park. The centre of the children's programs will again be the Magic Park, the area from Vajdahunyad Castle to Kós Károly Promenade.
As part of the St. Stephen's Day event series, this year the Festival of Crafts can be visited free of charge in the Buda Castle. The country's largest folk art festival will be held this year with the participation of about a thousand domestic and foreign craftsmen. At the event, the audience can meet a number of stage productions, dance and music performances.