From its beginnings in 2008, when it attracted some 5,000 visitors over three days, the Ördögkatlan festival has grown handsomely. Now stretching over five days and counting 30,000 visitors last year, this multi-arts festival runs from 30 July in Nagyharsány, Kisharsány, Palkonya, Vylyan and Beremend, five villages in the “devil’s cauldron” (one literal translation of ördögkatlan) in southern Hungary near Pécs.
Theatre, music, literature, film, exhibitions and family activities are just broad categories for the programme, which includes well-known names such as Hungarian folk band Quimby, French composer Erik Satie (through the hands of pianists Béla Faragó, Balázs Futó and István Kerek, for a 24-hour marathon of Satie’s piano works), Chopin pianist Tamás Erdi, voice-and-guitar jazz duo Veronika Harcsa and Bálint Gyémánt, the self-explanatory Symphonic Brass Quintet and Romungro Gipsy Banda, and artists Miroslav Jovancic and Imre Bukta.
Puppet theatre and crafts, music and dance workshops are also on offer to keep children and children-at-heart entertained. Exorcisms are not listed.
Weekly passes cost HUF 9,000 up to the start of the festival and HUF 11,000 on the spot, day tickets HUF 3,500 on the spot, children under 10 go free and children’s programmes and exhibitions are also free.
The ticket
Ördögkatlan Festival
30 July-3 August
Held across five villages between Pécs and the Croatian border.
www.ordogkatlan.hu/ (limited English)
