Things to do in Budapest this week
Monday 2 to Sunday 8 November
The best events in Budapest between now and Sunday: festivals, film, music and free things to do.
Photo: A38 Hajó 1. Tito & Tarantula on the A38
Monday 2 November, 20:00, gate opens at 19:00
A38 concert hall, by Petőfi Bridge, District XI
The band who played the vampire house band in From Dusk Till Dawn bring a best-of European tour to the ship, with Tarantula songs, film music and a few surprises.
Photo: Barba Negra 2. Amon Amarth at Barba Negra
Monday 2 November, doors 17:30
Barba Negra Red Stage, District XXI
Orbit Culture and Soilwork play as guests before the headline set, which is why the gates open as early as they do. The VIP tickets have gone, so standing is what is left.
Photo: Musica Mundi Agency 3. Mozart's Requiem at St Stephen's Basilica
Monday 2 November, 20:00
St Stephen's Basilica, District V
An All Souls' Day gala in the Cathedral Organ Concerts series, with four soloists, a mixed choir and a chamber orchestra.
Photo: Valter Berecz / Hungarian State Opera 4. Verdi's Requiem at the Opera House
2 to 7 November, 19:00 on all three nights
Hungarian State Opera, District VI
Verdi's Requiem lifted off the music stands and staged: Ádám Tulassay's production moves it into a sombre city of today and makes it about how a city dweller lives with death. Sung in Latin, with surtitles in English.
Photo: KMO Művelődési Központ és Könyvtár 5. Edit Szalma: Képjegyzetek
22 September to 8 November, Monday to Thursday 08:00 to 16:00, Friday usually the same, weekends depending on what else is on
Előtér Galéria, KMO Művelődési Központ, District XIX
Edit Szalma draws for books and poems, and this free show in the KMO’s foyer gallery hangs the results as art in their own right rather than as illustrations.
Photo: Fővárosi Állat- és Növénykert 6. World Press Photo 2026 at Budapest Zoo
25 September to 8 November, Monday to Thursday and Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Friday, Saturday and 23 October 10:00 to 20:00
Biodóm lobby, Budapest Zoo, District XIV
The year's winning press photographs, shown in the Biodóm lobby at the zoo. It is sold on its own ticket, separate from zoo admission, and keeps its own hours.
Photo: Capa Központ 7. The 44th Hungarian Press Photo exhibition
16 September to 8 November, Tuesday to Friday 13:00 to 18:00, weekends 10:00 to 18:00
Capa Center, Nagymező utca, District VI
The year in Hungarian press photography, picked by an international jury from several thousand entries and hung at the Capa Center.
Photo: Eötvös10 8. Aranymetszés: painters on the golden section
8 October to 8 November, opens 8 October at 17:00, then daily 10:00 to 18:00
Eötvös10 Pincegaléria, District VI
The painting section of the Hungarian Association of Fine and Applied Artists fills the cellar gallery at Eötvös10 with work shaped by the golden section, as part of the Day of Hungarian Painting.
Photo: MáraiKult 9. Napfivér: three painters in the Mária Magdolna tower
8 October to 9 November, opening 8 October at 18:00, then open to visitors from 9 October to 9 November
Mária Magdolna Tower, Kapisztrán tér, District I
Three painters hang new work inside the medieval bell tower that is all that survives of the church of St Mary Magdalene, high in the Castle District. Entry costs nothing.
Photo: Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum Múzeumi Oktatási és Módszertani Központ 10. Múzeumok Őszi Fesztiválja, the autumn museum festival
28 September to 15 November, times vary by museum
Museums across Hungary, Budapest included
Close to 150 museums across Hungary open up for seven weeks of tours, workshops and talks. The Budapest and central Hungary listing is the longest of any region, but this is a national festival, so check where a programme actually is before you set off.
Photo: Angyalföldi József Attila Művelődési Központ 11. Alkotás Öröme, a handicraft exhibition
7 October to 15 November, opens at 15:00 on 7 October, then weekdays 08:00 to 20:00 and at weekends when the centre has something on
Angyalföldi József Attila Művelődési Központ, District XIII
Members of the District XIII club of the Budapest association for people with motor disabilities show what they have been making, under a title that means the joy of making. Tablecloths, sewing boxes, jewellery, dolls and pieces for the home, and nothing to pay.
Photo: Műcsarnok 12. László György Sáros: From Details, Space Itself
18 September to 15 November, 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. The exhibitions close at 17:00 on 20 and 29 October
Műcsarnok, District XIV
The buildings and the photographs of one of the leading figures in Hungarian organic architecture, shown together in the Műcsarnok's Box space.
Photo: Budapest Gallery 13. My heart is crying inside: grief works
4 September to 22 November, 10:00 to 18:00 every day except Monday
Budapest Gallery, Lajos utca, District III
A group show about mourning, and about how completely late capitalist society has pushed death out of ordinary life. Flóra Gadó has gathered a dozen artists on private loss, on care for the dying, and on the rituals communities have lost or rebuilt.
Photo: Műcsarnok 14. József Árendás's posters and drawings at the Műcsarnok
25 September to 22 November, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Thursday 12:00 to 20:00, closed Mondays, last entry half an hour before closing
Műcsarnok, District XIV
A condensed retrospective of one of the big names in Hungarian cultural poster design, mounted for his eightieth birthday. Film posters from the 1970s, the theatre posters he began in the eighties, and the ones he has since made purely as art.
Photo: Hungarian National Museum 15. The Treasures of King Louis I (the Great) of Hungary
5 March to 31 December, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00
Hungarian National Museum, Medieval Lapidary, District VIII
A cabinet display of goldsmiths' work, gold coin and finds from the king's seat at Visegrád, from a reign that made medieval Hungary one of the richest kingdoms in Europe. It sits in the museum's Medieval Lapidary.
Photo: Deák17 Galéria 16. 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 17. 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 18. 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: Ludwig Museum 19. 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 20. 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 21. 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 22. 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 23. 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.
Photo: Müpa Budapest 24. Coltrane 100
Tuesday 3 November, 20:00 to 21:30
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
A five-piece assembled for the centenary of John Coltrane's birth, with the saxophonist Joe Lovano its most senior member. They play his compositions rather than reproduce his records.
Photo: Liszt Academy 25. Yulianna Avdeeva and Quatuor Modigliani at the Liszt Academy
Tuesday 3 November, 19:30 to 22:00
Grand Hall, Liszt Academy, District VI
A chamber evening that ends with all five players together on Shostakovich's Piano Quintet. Ravel and Debussy come first, one each.
Photo: Uránia Nemzeti Filmszínház 26. NT Live's All My Sons at the Uránia
Tuesday 3 November, 19:00 to 22:15
Uránia National Film Theatre, District VIII
Bryan Cranston and Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Ivo van Hove's staging of Arthur Miller's play, filmed at Wyndham's Theatre in the West End and shown in the Uránia's grand hall. In English, with English subtitles.
Photo: Hungarian State Opera 27. The Fountain of Bakhchisarai at the Opera House
3 to 15 November, 18:30 on 3, 5, 12 and 13 November, 11:00 on 7 and 15 November, and both 11:00 and 18:30 on 8 November
Hungarian State Opera, District VI
A cornerstone of Russian ballet drama, after Pushkin's poem, first danced in this house in 1952. It is told in movement, so there is nothing to read or translate.
Photo: Müpa Budapest 28. Kirill Gerstein and the Luxembourg Philharmonic
Wednesday 4 November, 19:30 to 22:00
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
The Luxembourg Philharmonic returns with Martin Rajna newly installed as its music director. Kirill Gerstein is the soloist in Bartók's Third Piano Concerto, probably the most popular of his concertos.
Photo: Puskin Mozi 29. Puskin 100 film festival
25 September to 28 November, one screening most weeks, usually at 19:00, with family matinees at 10:00
Puskin Mozi, District V
The Puskin opened in November 1926 and marks its first hundred years with one unusual screening a week: rarely shown classics, silent films with live music, talks and newsreels.
Photo: Liszt Academy 30. Barnabás Kelemen and the Tonkünstler Orchestra at the Liszt Academy
Thursday 5 November, 19:30 to 22:00
Grand Hall, Liszt Academy, District VI
The Austrian orchestra brings Andreas Ottensamer to the Grand Hall to conduct, with Barnabás Kelemen out front for two Bartók works for violin and orchestra.
Photo: A38 Hajó 31. Call Me Karizma on the A38
Thursday 5 November, 20:00, gate opens at 19:00
A38 concert hall, by Petőfi Bridge, District XI
The Minneapolis songwriter brings his first headline European tour in two years to the ship's concert hall. Rock, hip-hop, pop and punk in one set, with lyrics that go straight at mental health, politics and relationships.
Photo: A38 Hajó 32. Sports and Pool Girl on the A38
Friday 6 November, 19:30, gate opens at 18:30
A38 concert hall, by Petőfi Bridge, District XI
Indie pop from Tulsa, built on a friendship that started in childhood. The Californian songwriter Pool Girl opens in the ship's concert hall.
Photo: Akvárium Klub 33. Péterfy Bori & Love Band: BoriMaraton
Friday 6 November, doors 19:00
Akvárium Klub Main Hall, Erzsébet tér, District V
Bori Péterfy and the Love Band go long in the Akvárium's biggest room, back for a second year on the strength of the first. The songs are in Hungarian.
Photo: Akvárium Klub 34. Taylo'ween Taylor Swift night at the Akvárium Klub
Friday 6 November, doors 23:30
Akvárium Klub Small Hall, Erzsébet tér, District V
A club night of Taylor Swift songs and nothing else, in the Akvárium's smaller room. Doors are at half past eleven, so it is a late one.
Photo: Barba Negra 35. Firkin at Barba Negra
Friday 6 November, doors 19:00
Barba Negra Blue Stage, District XXI
Firkin mark eighteen years with a night the venue bills as a concert and a dance party rather than a straight gig.
Photo: Liszt Academy 36. Beethoven 200 and Dohnányi 150 at the Old Academy of Music
Friday 6 November, 19:00 to 21:00
Chamber Hall, Old Academy of Music, District VI
The first evening of a run marking two anniversaries, played by piano students of the Liszt Academy. There is nothing to pay and no ticket to book.
Photo: Musica Mundi Agency 37. Friday organ concerts with trumpet and soprano at St Stephen's Basilica
6 to 27 November, 20:00 on each Friday, one hour
St Stephen's Basilica, District V
Four Fridays running, an hour each, with two organists at the basilica's two instruments and a soprano and a trumpeter beside them.
Photo: Müpa Budapest 38. Chaplin: Modern Times with live orchestra
Saturday 7 November, 19:00 to 21:00
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
Modern Times on the big screen with Chaplin's own music played live by the Danubia Orchestra under Ábel Tompa.
Photo: MVM Dome 39. The Witcher in Concert at the MVM Dome
Saturday 7 November, 20:00
MVM Dome, Üllői út, District IX
Music from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt played live by a 14-piece ensemble, with visuals running alongside the music. Budapest is a stop on the show's second European tour.
Photo: Hegyvidék Galéria 40. György Kepes documentary and talk at the Hegyvidék Galéria
Saturday 7 November, 17:00 to 20:00
Hegyvidék Galéria, District XII
Márton Orosz's portrait of the painter who ended up running an art and science laboratory at MIT, shown in English. Art historians and artists pick up its questions round a table afterwards.
Photo: Akvárium Klub 41. Altın Gün at the Akvárium Klub
Sunday 8 November, doors 19:00
Akvárium Klub Main Hall, Erzsébet tér, District V
The Dutch and Turkish band return to the Akvárium with Garip, their record for the Turkish folk bard Neşet Ertaş. Anatolian melodies, heavy basslines and banks of synths.
Photo: Liszt Academy 42. The Great Liszt Marathon at the Liszt Academy
Sunday 8 November, three concerts, from 11:00, from 15:00 and from 19:00
Grand Hall, Liszt Academy, District VI
János Balázs plays nothing but Liszt all day in the Grand Hall, over three concerts that run from late morning to late evening. Each has its own ticket, so a single sitting is as welcome as the lot.
Photo: Uránia Nemzeti Filmszínház 43. The Royal Ballet's Manon on screen at the Uránia
Sunday 8 November, 15:00
Uránia National Film Theatre, District VIII
Kenneth MacMillan's Manon from Covent Garden, in the Uránia's grand hall. It is a recording rather than a live relay, and runs 190 minutes with two intervals.
Photo: Trafó House of Contemporary Arts 44. OOIOO, Michaela Turcerová and 88 Defibrillátor at Trafó
Sunday 8 November, 19:00, 180 minutes
Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Main Hall, District IX
Trafó House and UH Fest put three acts in the Main Hall for an evening of experimental music, from Japan, Slovakia and Hungary. Three hours, marked English friendly by the house.
Photo: Óbudai Kulturális Központ 45. Óbuda mineral fair and bonsai show
Sunday 8 November, 09:00 to 17:00
Óbudai Kulturális Központ, District III
Minerals, gemstones and fossils to look at and to buy, with a room of bonsai trees next door and craft sessions running all day. Nothing to pay at the door.