Jewish Summer Festival Budapest

Explore the Jewish quarter in Budapest from a different angle at the Jewish Cultural Festival – formerly known as the Jewish Summer Festival.

This event started 17 years ago with the purpose of introducing the Jewish culture and heritage. Over the years it grew bigger and bigger, now people come here from all over the world to experience the traditions, but mostly the whole vibe of the Jewish quarter. Since it turned into such a huge event, in 2015 it became a “Superbrand”. This classification means that the festival has to widen the selection of it’s programmes, also get into collaboration with other events.

There are three main event sites. One of them is the Dohány Street Synagogue, the biggest concerts are going to be held there. Among the performers you can find the Budapest Klezmer Band – they are a world famous group of musicians who play tradicional jewish music, The Dohány Symphonic Orchestra, The Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, but the list goes on and on.
The second one is the Rumbach Street Synagogue – which is still in need of a little caretaking – will be the host for modern jazz, blues-rock jazz concerts and the Independent Theatre, performing Caligula’s Eparch.
The third venue is the Goldmark Hall, where the Independent Theatre will also perform such productions as the Fourth Gate or the Dohány Street Sheriff. These plays are strongly connected to the jewish traditions and destiny. They will also show two quite rare movies, one of them is Miklós Jancsó’s Jews of Budapest twenty years ago, and the other one is Béla Fáy’s documentary about the modern era of the Jewish quarter.

This festival offers a great insight to this vast culture and community, it introduces wonderful artists, actors with almost thirty different programmes and performances, in the beautiful center of Budapest.