Events: What's on in Budapest

Kicking off with the lilting reggae rhythms of Irie Maffia on April 23, prime open-air live venue Budapest Park stages five months of regular shows in the shadow of Közvágóhíd, set back from the Müpa arts complex in south Pest. Among the top international acts are Moby on August 1, Rita Ora on July 29, Idles on July 8 and the Sex Pistols with Frank Carter on July 20. Big Hungarian names include Halott Pénz, Ivan & the Parazol and Blahalouisiana. The season closes with Parov Stelar on September 26.

The Szeged Contemporary Ballet's production of Black Swan reimagines the classic work as a ballet thriller.

The direction taken by Tamás Juronics lead the audience not to the world of fairy tales, but to the closed environment of a 19th-century asylum. The performance is set at the time of the premiere of Swan Lake in 1877, when ideas about the human mind and mental illness often led to cruel and now bizarre treatment methods.

The choreography created by Tamás Juronics, Gergely Czár and the company combines the beauty of ballet with psychological tension. Here, the swan is not only a symbol of transformation, but also an image of freedom, obsession and the disintegration of reality.

Cha-Cha-Cha, Süss Fel Nap, West-Balkán, Kultiplex, Zöld Pardon – the alternative nightspots of Budapest in the early 2000s unfolded in metro underpasses, courtyard gardens and former cinemas. All have completely disappeared or been converted into something less pioneering.

This free pop-up exhibition at the House of Hungarian Music picks out visual memories of this era. Flashes, grainy digital images, faces caught on the dance floor and familiar clubs appear in the photos of Balázs Glódi and Fényérközék, as well as in footage from the archives of Pulzar and drumandbass.hu.

The exhibition not only evokes nostalgia, but also shows a moment before a big change, the period when, for the first time, digital cameras and party photo sites made it possible to look back on the nightlife of an entire city almost instantly. The exhibition is a companion event to the Independent Label Fair taking place in September. Note also that the House of Hungarian Music closes between August 10-17.

For three days at the MVM Dome from Friday, August 28, local darts fans can see top players in action as they compete for the Hungarian Darts Trophy. Part of the Professional Darts Corporation Europe, which stages events across Germany, Poland and across the region, this weekend-long tourney starts at noon on the Friday. Watch Niko 'Meenzer Bub' Springer defend his trophy against the best in Europe! Tickets are sold for each of the three days from noon-11pm, or for half-day admission.

The Müpa JazzTime festival returns on the last weekend of August. On the opening night, Veronica Swift performs with the Budapest Jazz Orchestra. After her virtuoso improvisations and big-band arrangements, the following day, singer, pianist and songwriter Nicole Zuraitis arrives with her husband, drummer Dan Pugach, and the Modern Art Orchestra.

For the closing show, Aubrey Logan sings and plays trombone accompanied by the Csapó Krisztián Band. The three evenings fuse classic jazz evergreens with modern songwriting with a playful style towards pop and cabaret, while each night shows a different face of contemporary vocal jazz.

During the first week of September, focal square Szabadság tér will once again be transformed into a huge outdoor beer garden for the tenth anniversary Downtown Beer Festival, bringing 250 different brews over six days.

In addition to the novelties and specialities of Hungary's top small-scale breweries, international labels and beer premieres will also be on tap, so there should be plenty to discover, from well-known to bolder, more experimental flavours. Along with the beers, street food and live music programs complete the summer-farewell atmosphere.

The festival is free but you must purchase the event's special glass for tasting.

Denver's Of Feather And Bone bring an aural assault of death metal to Europe for a major summer tour. Having gigged relentlessly throughout North America, OFAB have solidified their support with two albums on the Profound Lore Records label. Support is provided by LA's Civerous, Fossilization and Photocosm from Montréal.

A new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts not only displays fascinating objects from Ancient Egypt, but also shows how statues, stelae, reliefs and wall paintings were made. Viewers are allowed into the creative process – through unfinished works, contemporary depictions and details that preserve traces of the making, you can see how the Egyptian masters did it.

One of the most exciting parts of the exhibition is that it brings items thousands of years old to new life with the help of modern technology. You can see a 3D animation of the internal structure of a coffin, reconstructed colours that are no longer perceptible to the naked eye, and a hologram projector that shows how the works of art might have been in their original splendour.

125 years of Hungarian cinema is being celebrated at photo gallery, the Mai Manó House, some 400 photographs, video montages and bilingual documentation presenting the history of one of Europe’s earliest film cultures. Hungarian visitors will immediately recognise the stars and the revered features they appeared in, though will not have seen the backstage and previously hidden images from their film shoots. Displays on the upper floor are dedicated to the art of still and set photography, another field in which Hungary has excelled over the decades.

Showcased at a month-long exhibition at the Velvet Bar & Café in the five-star surroundings of the Al Habtoor Palace Budapest, a quartet of up-and-coming Hungarian artists will be displaying their creations on a week-by-week basis.

First up from August 3 is Anna Táncos, whose pieces explore the dialogue between architectural spaces, urban landscapes and contemporary visual language. From August 10, interior designer Szandra Feth shows her rich textures in her first public exhibition while Rita Cserbik’s paintings will be revealing her inner emotional processes from August 17. From August 24, Lívia Berkes will bring together abstraction and gestural painting in what she describes as a “unique environment, which carries a different atmosphere during the day and in the evening”. Visitors can peruse the artworks by day in natural light, or return in the evening, when specially created signature cocktails offer a new perspective on the experience.

In June, the open-air stage on Budapest's largest island comes alive again when one of Budapest’s most beautiful summer-only venues kicks off its annual agenda of classical music, opera, spectacular productions and Hungarian pop idols.

The season begins on June 4 with the opening concert of the National Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by the Queen Symphony & Concert Show on June 13, and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana on June 17, which will be performed in a concert-like, oratorio format, with a symphony orchestra and choir.

The Danube Carnival gala will be held on June 19, followed by two nights of Verdi on July 23 and 25, and the revered pre-war Hungarian cabaret swing of Budapest Bár on September 2. Although the programme is aimed towards a domestic audience, the verdant setting under the stars more than makes up for any linguistic hurdles. See here for the full schedule in English.

Free summer concerts are taking place on Kossuth tér outside Parliament every Thursday from 5pm, a series known as Tér-Zene ('Square Music'). For an hour each week, musicians playing classical, swing, jazz or acoustic pop will be entertaining passing crowds near the fountain on the relandscaped public space, with the iconic dome of Parliament as the backdrop.

Whether you’re on your way home from work or stopping for a moment while sightseeing, you can plot up on the steps or lie on the grass and enjoy an hour's free live sounds. Prime spots go quickly, so get here a little early if you can.

Hosted at his namesake exhibition centre, Hungarian Report, 1948, displays some 50 photographs taken by the legendary photographer Robert Capa, who had returned home from his acclaimed photo shoots around war-torn Europe. What he discovered was ruined streets and the gradual rebuilding of the city of his youth, as it faced a post-war future with hope and uncertainty.

On the Hungarian throne for 40 years, from 1342 to 1382, King Louis I the Great, oversaw the excavation of precious metals, mainly gold, to allow his medieval realm to flourish. Born exactly 700 years ago in Visegrád, where a number of anniversary events will also take place, this ruler of the Angevin dynasty pursued a successful foreign policy and quelled internal rebellion, acquiring the Polish crown, founding Hungary's first university, and encouraging the development of arts and craftsmanship. The few remaining examples of coins and jewellery from this golden period are on display at the National Museum will be on display until the end of the year. Documentation is in English and Hungarian.

This year, RAKPART, the traffic-free celebration of the Pest embankment, opens for its summer season on May 1 at the start of the bank-holiday weekend. Entertainment will be laid on for pedestrians, cyclists, badminton players, barbecuers, joggers, rollerbladers, dog walkers and anyone keen on relaxing and taking in the cityscape by the river. Until mid-September, the waterfront will be free of motorists every weekend and, for 2026, the lower embankment will also be closed to four wheels on weekday evenings.