Festival of Folk Arts in Budapest – Hungarian folk dancing

One happy find on our summer visit to Budapest, was the Festival of Folk Arts that’s held on Castle Hill around the Buda Royal Palace. The festival is held every year for four days in August around the National holiday of St Stephen’s day on 20 August, when Hungarians commemorate the founding of their nation 1000 years ago.

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Views along the Danube

You can reach the area around the Buda Palace and the Hungarian National Gallery, set on the hill, by crossing the Chain Bridge and then climbing steeply up, or taking the Buda Castle Funicular to the top of the hill.

We approached from a different direction , having climbed up the cobbled streets behind our hotel. We admired the view from the Fisherman’s Bastion and colourful Mátyás Church, before walking along the street that runs along the top of the hill, overlooking the Danube.

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There were a few stalls along the approach to the main festival. Once we reached the wrought iron gates, we paid the entrance fee  to enter the main festival.

All the best Hungarian crafts

This Folk festival must be the place to see all the top notch Hungarian crafts. There was everything from beautifully embroidered textiles, to painted eggs, to country style pottery. 

Dough shapes were piped with intricate designs, that I don’t think were designed for eating. However, there was plenty that you could eat, including the Kürtős Kalács that we enjoyed. This sweet dough is wrapped around a metal cylinder and roasted over the fire then rolled in sugar and cinnamon.

Traditional folk singers and dancers

There was also a stage where a succession of folk groups and singers were performing. Traditional Hungarian dancers featured plenty of skirt twirling by the ladies and boot slapping by the men.

As a lover of fashion and textiles, I was fascinated by the costumes. They varied from floral printed country style dresses, to close fitting velvet jackets. Full sprigged skirts had plenty of petticoats under them.

The common theme seemed to be that the men were the stars of the dance, with much leaping and boot slapping. The role of the ladies seemed to be to look demure and dance daintily around their menfolk.

You really couldn’t fault the Festival for location, as we wound our way around the beautiful old palace buildings, now housing the Hungarian National Gallery, with glimpses across the Danube.

I admired many of the ceramics and other lovely handicrafts. Actually, we bought just a few postcards and small food items, mindful of the fact that we had limited space in our carry on cases. Read about all the other souvenirs to look out for when shopping in Budapest.

Traditional Hungarian souvenirs

If you’re not visiting in August you can still find many excellent Hungarian souvenirs. Look for the painted eggs and embroidered textiles on the top floor of the Central Market that is devoted to crafts.

There was also a section for food stalls, which we found an excellent venue for an inexpensive snack lunch. We tried the typical Hungarian snack of Langos that’s like a puffy pancake. It’s topped with sour cream and cheese, although there were other toppings too.

I’d also recommend the Festival of Folk Arts as a family outing and there were plenty of craft demonstrations. We also stopped to watch a childrens’ entertainer on a different stage who had all the children up and dancing to his songs.

I hope you enjoy the boot slapping and skirt twirling and the mournful gypsy violins as we did.

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• Intercontinental Budapest Review – a luxury spring break
• 5 fun Budapest restaurants – Cold War Canteen to Literary Salon

While visiting Budapest we stayed at Park Plaza Budapest

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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