Things to do in Budapest in January
January 2027
The best exhibitions, concerts, thermal baths and all-round great things to do in Budapest in January 2027.
January weather
Barely above freezing, even at midday
Colder overnight than any other month
Days with 1 mm of rain or more
Averages for 1991 to 2020 from HungaroMet, the Hungarian Meteorological Service.
Always good in January
What’s on in January 2027
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Photo: Müpa Budapest Haydn's Creation at Müpa's New Year's concert
Friday 1 January, 19:00 to 21:00
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
Müpa's traditional New Year's concert, conducted as always by Ádám Fischer: this time Haydn's oratorio The Creation, with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic and the Hungarian Radio Choir.
Photo: Liszt Academy New Year's concert at the Liszt Academy
Friday 1 January, 18:00 to 20:00
Grand Hall, Liszt Academy, District VI
The Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra's New Year's concert, conducted this time by Máté Hámori: Beethoven, from the Prometheus and Fidelio overtures to his second Romance for violin, with jazz improvisations in between. Hungarian public television and radio broadcast it live.
Photo: Hungarian State Opera Beethoven's Ninth for New Year at the Opera House
1 to 3 January, 20:00 on both nights, ending at 22:35 on 1 January and 22:20 on 3 January
Hungarian State Opera, District VI
For the fourteenth year, the Opera starts January with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, played in Mahler's reworking. The finale is sung in German, with English surtitles.
Photo: Hungarian State Opera The Nutcracker at the Opera House
20 November to 10 January, 19:00 on 20, 25 and 27 November, 1, 3, 8, 10, 14 and 15 December and 7 January; 18:00 on 21 November, 17 and 28 December and 10 January; 11:00 on 22 November, 19, 24, 25 and 27 December and 3 January; 11:00 and 18:00 on 28 November, 5, 6, 12, 21, 22, 26 and 29 December and 2 and 9 January; 13:00 and 21:00 on 31 December; 14:00 on 1 January
Hungarian State Opera, District VI
Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet has 43 performances at the Opera House between 20 November and 10 January, in the staging Wayne Eagling and Tamás Solymosi made for the Hungarian National Ballet. It is danced, not spoken, so there is nothing to translate.
Exhibitions and longer runs
On for a week or more, so there is time: the ones closing soonest come first.
Photo: Deák17 Galéria LAK|HATÁS, housing seen by young artists
25 September to 8 January
Városháza Park, District V
An open-air show in the park behind City Hall, on what home means to people starting out. The Deák17 gallery picked the work from an open call and hung it outdoors, so you can take it in on the way past.
Photo: Műcsarnok Idézőjelek, the Károly Kelemen memorial exhibition
21 October to 10 January, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Thursday 12:00 to 20:00, closed Monday; closed on 23 October and 1 November, and open from 13:00 on 7 November
Műcsarnok, Heroes' Square, District XIV
The Műcsarnok's memorial show for Károly Kelemen, who died in 2024, gathers about 150 works and sets out to cover the whole of a career rather than a slice of it.
Photo: Capa Központ Metamorphosis at the Capa Center
7 October to 17 January, Tuesday to Friday 13:00 to 18:00, weekends 10:00 to 18:00, closed Monday
Capa Center, Nagymező utca, District VI
Nine European photographers on the idea that nothing holds its shape for long, from cells and family ties to landscape and the cosmos. The travelling show has already been to Prague, Rouen and Turin, and Budapest is its last stop.
Photo: Műcsarnok Műcsarnok 130
7 November to 17 January, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Thursday 12:00 to 20:00, closed Mondays, last entry at 17:30 and at 19:30 on Thursdays
Műcsarnok, District XIV
The Műcsarnok makes an exhibition out of its own 130 years, across three rooms: a timeline of its exhibitions since 1896, the architect's drawings for the building, and works pulled back in to stand for the shows they came from.
Photo: Műcsarnok Frissen 2026: painters paint themselves
13 November to 17 January, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Thursday 12:00 to 20:00, closed Mondays, last entry at 17:30 and at 19:30 on Thursdays
Műcsarnok, District XIV
Six Hungarian painters get a room each, all opening on the same day and hung as one show. Walking from room to room, the method and the way of thinking change every time.
Photo: Ludwig Museum Walk This Way: the art of walking
9 October to 31 January, Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00, closed Monday; English guided tours at 17:00 on 13 and 27 December
Ludwig Museum, in the Müpa building, District IX
An international group show that takes walking seriously as an art form, tracing it from the Dada excursion of 1921 to land art, performance and activism. Two of the December guided tours are in English.
Photo: Hungarian National Gallery Dedicated Ones: Hungarian women artists
21 October to 14 February, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, last entry 17:00, closed Monday
Hungarian National Gallery, Buda Castle, District I
More than 130 works by sixty Hungarian women artists working in the first half of the twentieth century. No Hungarian museum has given them a show on this scale before.
Photo: Museum of Fine Arts Budapest Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin at the Museum of Fine Arts
30 October to 28 February, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, last admission 17:00, closed Monday; one Friday a month it opens 12:00 to 20:00 instead
Museum of Fine Arts, Heroes' Square, District XIV
Hungary's first large-scale Gauguin exhibition, assembled from loans by nearly forty public and private collections. It follows him from Paris and Brittany to Martinique, Tahiti and the Marquesas.
Photo: House of Music Hungary Freddie, the exhibition at the House of Music
1 May to 28 February, Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday 10:00 to 18:30, last admission 16:30; Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 20:30, last admission 18:30; closed on Mondays
House of Music Hungary, City Park, District XIV
Stage costumes, furniture, manuscripts and personal belongings tell Freddie Mercury's own story, in a show marking forty years since the Queen concert in Budapest.
Photo: Maksymilian Paczkowski / Csokonai15 Birdo, the year's best bird photographs
2 October to 22 March, in the open air, visiting hours not published
Polgármesteri Hivatal visitor car park, District XV
Winning pictures from Birdo's Az év madárfotósa award, hung along a fence in Rákospalota. Free, outdoors and up all winter.