Experience the Budapest Jewish Summer Festival - Now In Its 14th Year

The Budapest Jewish Summer Festival, introducing Hungarian Jewish culture and traditions of many others, in the last week of the summer, is Hungary’s most important and biggest cultural-artistic event series. It attracts segments of the population which are otherwise less inclined to visit such events during the rest of the year.

Now in its 14th year, the festival started on August 27 and is running through September 5.  The main venue of the internationally recognized Budapest Jewish Summer Festival is the exquisite Dohány Street Synagogue.

The brass section of the New York Metropolitan Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera opened the festival last week. On their first concert in Europe they invited the French pianist, Francoise de Clossey, as a guest musician. 

The concert held on August 29 in the Dohány Street Synagogue united the Eastern European stars of world music, Felix Lajko, Kalman Balogh Gipsy Cimbalom Band and Marko Markovic in concert together.

The headliner of this year’s festival will be the Idan Raichel Project on September 4. The leader and the musician the band is named after, Idan Raichel himself is one the most sophisticated and most exciting young Israeli performers showing equally high qualities as a composer and as pianist as well.

It will be the first time that the world famous world music band holds a concert in Hungary. Their musical style is characterized by the mesmerizing, harmonic unity of musical traditions of Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean region and Middle East.

Since most of our readers are unlikely to visit Budapest this week, let's take a video stroll through the streets of Budapest while the festival is in progress, and then watch a performance of one of the most popular songs by the Idan Raichel Project, Bo'ee.  Enjoy!