In each issue, we collect the most exciting and interesting happenings of the month. Here are the things that thrilled us during the last few weeks of the winter season!
What belongs together will grow together
Instant and Fogas Ház. Two legendary ruin bars of the Budapest nightlife. Up until now, these two venues were the largest party complexes in the city, but the recent acquisition of the Nagymező utca host-building of Instant by a hotel chain put the owners in a tough spot. Months have gone by with everybody speculating on what’s gonna happen next with downtown Budapest’s favourite enchanted forest, and now we finally have the answer: the managements of the two institutions have decided to join forces and as a result, Central Europe’s biggest indoor club will open its many doors come 14 March! The completely refurbished party palace of Akácfa utca will welcome visitors all week long with another 1200 square meters added, a number of new music projects, and sub-venues covering every popular genre of music, ranging from techno and house to rock and r’n’b.
On Body and Soul
Director Ildikó Enyedi’s first feature film since her 1999 movie Simon the Magician, titled On Body and Soul, has won a sweeping victory at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival: besides being given the prize of the FIPRESCI jury, the Ecunemical Jury and the readers’ prize of Berliner Morgenpost, the unusual love story fetched the festival’s most prestigious prize as well, the Golden Bear. “What would happen if you met someone who dreamt the same as you or, to be more precise, had been meeting you in the same world every night for years? Would you be pleased? Or would you feel that you had been in some way robbed? And what if this specific individual didn’t exactly appeal to you? What if you actually hated that person?” Catch the movie at the cinema and all these questions will be answered!
Garage Gastronomy
Even though the streets of downtown Budapest are dotted with cool-looking street food venues virtually every step of the way, somehow the outlier parts of the city had missed out on the new-wave gastro revolution. But that’s finally about to change as plans have been drawn up for a huge culinary complex to be built in the Óbuda neighbourhood of Budapest, surrounded by the modern office buildings and the hundred years old towers of the former gasworks of Graphisoft Park. The street food plaza will operate under the name “Le Garage”, seating 525 people, and will include a delicatessen, cafés, a farmers market, and five foodtrucks! Opens in summer 2018.
And the award of FUNZINE goest to…
The Heineken Budapest Nightlife Awards, awarding the Hungarian capital’s best clubs, bars, pubs and festivals, was organized for the second time this year. More than 30 thousand votes had been cast for 150 nominees in 12 categories, signalling the importance of customer feedback for the industry figures. The ceremony was held on 2 February at downtown’s Akvárium Klub, which took home the first prize last year in the best concert venue category. This year, FUNZINE sponsored the best Budapest festival category, in which Sziget Fesztivál came out on top. Divino was named the best winebar of the city, Neked Csak Dezső the best craft beer pub, Budapest Park the best open-air venue, Raktár Bár the best bar, and Pont the best small club. For the complete list of winners, check out bpna.hu!
