Once again, a special warm summer night in Budapest brings you the opportunity to catch up on your culture. If phrases like ‘I really ought to visit more museums’ or ‘I can’t believe I missed that exhibition’ come up regularly in your conversation, here is your chance to make it all up in one night and get your culture fix to last you until next year. Night of the Museums is once again upon us.
Unfortunately, we’re not talking about the story where display objects in a museum come to life at night time (though if the curators of Budapest museums could organize this, they probably would!). Even so, Night of the Museums promises to be another gluttonous feast for culture vultures, as many cultural institutions open their doors for one night, put on a whole load of exciting events and let you wander around as many as you care to see for the price you might pay to visit just one. What’s more, they’ve organized free transport throughout the night to take you round many of the participating museums.
Many of the institutions, large and small, are putting on all sorts of cultural gems to make the experience even more vibrant. The Hungarian National Museum for example, aside from featuring its large collection of artifacts from all ages of Hungarian history, will be filled with live music, dance and theater performances, and there’ll be special activities for kids, too.
At the Museum of Fine Arts, on top of having a look around their healthy collection of masterpieces, you’ll be able to hear a lecture on still life paintings, as well as one or two live, unplugged concerts.
If you’re looking for a more underground scene you might head to the spacious rooms and courtyard garden of Tűzraktér, where you’ll be presented with contemporary music, dance and theater performances alongside some vintage film screenings.
Or perhaps this sort of art culture thing doesn’t float your boat at all, and you’d much rather spend the evening finding out about the last 175 years of Hungarian Ship-Making. In which case we suggest the Zoltán Steamer Non-profit Foundation, Debrecen ex Kassa Ship at Szilágyi Dezső tér dock.
And here are just a few well-intended tips on how to make the most of this experience: make strategic choices on what to see, don’t be too ambitious – keep the list short, and avoid mental exertion of any sort during all of the preceding day – you’ll need your brain charged to full power for this evening’s entertainment.
Night of the Museums
www.muzeumokejszakaja.hu