Things to do in Budapest this week
Monday 12 to Sunday 18 October
The best events in Budapest between now and Sunday: festivals, film, music and free things to do.
Photo: Várkert Bazár 1. Fények, színek, illatok, Italy in Hungarian art
17 August to 15 October, outdoors in the Neo-Renaissance garden, open 06:00 to 24:00
Várkert Bazár, the ramp up to the Gloriett, District I
A free open-air show of Hungarian artists' Italy, in reproductions framed along the ramp that climbs to the Gloriett. The work labels are in English as well as Hungarian.
Photo: Hungarian National Museum 2. Treasure of the month: a thaler hoard from Somló Hill
31 August to 18 October, 10:00 to 18:00 every day except Monday
Hungarian National Museum, District VIII
Twenty-seven silver thalers, turned up by a plough at the foot of Somló Hill in June and in a case in Budapest by the end of the summer. They went into the ground during the Fifteen Years' War and nobody ever came back for them.
3. Országos Étterem Hét, Hungary's restaurant week
1 to 18 October, lunch and dinner sittings, booked ahead
Restaurants across Budapest and beyond
More than 160 Budapest restaurants put on a three-course set menu for eighteen days, booked ahead through one website. It is the run of the year to try a kitchen you would otherwise walk past.
4. Liszt Fest across Budapest
8 to 22 October, times vary by event, most concerts in the evening
Müpa Budapest and venues across the city
Müpa Budapest's autumn festival takes over concert halls, museums and clubs for a fortnight. Orchestral and chamber music, dance, jazz, electronic sets, literature and exhibitions all sit on the same programme.
Photo: Mai Manó Ház 5. Zola the photographer at the Mai Manó House
3 September to 25 October, Tuesday to Sunday 12:00 to 19:00, last entry 18:30
Mai Manó Ház, District VI
Émile Zola picked up a camera at forty-eight and never put it down. This is what came of it, a hundred or so prints of the novelist's private world.
6. Idő-Állomás, Bálint Szajki's railway photographs
30 September to 29 October, opening 30 September at 19:00, then on show to 29 October, with a curator's tour on 20 October at 17:00
B32 Galéria és Kultúrtér, District XI
A press photographer spent months on the Hungarian railways, and these are the pictures. Free to see, in the gallery on Bartók Béla út.
7. Kék Pelikán exhibition at the KULT7 Labor
2 to 29 October, opens at 18:00 on 2 October, with a guided tour and a screening at 18:00 on 13 October
KULT7 Labor, District VII
The small upstairs gallery on Király utca gives October to Kék Pelikán, the Hungarian animated documentary, and shows the material the film was built out of. Nothing to pay to walk in.
Photo: Mária Óvári / Fővárosi Szabó Ervin Könyvtár 8. Fényrétegek, photographs by Mária Óvári
2 to 30 October, Monday, Wednesday and Friday 13:00 to 19:00, Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 to 16:00, closed at weekends and on 14 and 23 October
Karinthy Frigyes Könyvtár, District XI
A set of photographs hung among the shelves of the Karinthy Frigyes library in Újbuda. Free, and you see it whenever the library is open.
9. Öveket becsatolni! at the Északi Járműjavító
20 June to 31 October, Wednesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00, closed on 1 October
Északi Járműjavító, District X
The transport museum's show on how getting about was made safer, laid out in the old railway works that will become its new home. The title means fasten your seatbelts.
Photo: Hungarian National Museum 10. The American Dream, Hungarians in the United States 1776 to 2026
30 July to 1 November, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00
Hungarian National Museum, District VIII
Two and a half centuries of Hungarian lives in America, told through the objects and personal mementoes that survived overseas. It fills the grandest rooms the National Museum has.
Photo: KMO Művelődési Központ és Könyvtár 11. 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 12. 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.
13. 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 14. 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 15. 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.
16. 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 17. 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 18. 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 19. 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 20. 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.
21. 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 22. 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: Capa Központ 23. 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.
24. 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: Maksymilian Paczkowski / Csokonai15 25. 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 26. The Cleveland Orchestra at Müpa
Tuesday 13 October, 19:30 to 21:30
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
Franz Welser-Möst brings one of America's finest orchestras to the Liszt Fest, in his last season as its music director. Liszt, Martinů and Brahms in one programme.
Photo: Bem Mozi 27. Chungking Express at the Bem Mozi
Tuesday 13 October, 18:45
Bem Mozi, District II
Wong Kar-wai's 1994 film, two stories of city loneliness told one after the other. The Bem runs it in the original language with Hungarian and English subtitles.
Photo: Bem Mozi 28. Földszint with English subtitles at the Bem
3 to 27 October, times vary by date, between 15:30 and 20:30
Bem Mozi, District II
The Bem puts Gábor Reisz's tragicomedy on with English subtitles half a dozen times across the month. One day in the life of a man who finds a patch of damp on his wall and cannot leave it alone.
29. Vígszínház performances with English surtitles
3 October to 29 November, 19:00, except The Seagull on 17 October at 18:00, The Great Gatsby on 25 October at 14:30 and Pinocchio on 15 November at 17:00
Vígszínház and the Víg Szalon, District XIII
Fourteen performances across thirteen dates carry English surtitles, which is the easy way into a Hungarian repertory company. Pride and Prejudice, Chaplin's The Great Dictator, The Great Gatsby, Chekhov's The Seagull, the family musical Pinocchio and the song cycle Sommerreise are all marked for them.
Photo: Nemzeti Színház 30. English subtitles at the Nemzeti Színház
10 to 14 October, 18:00 on 10 October, 19:00 on 14 October
Nemzeti Színház, District IX
The National Theatre marks two performances with English subtitles: Marx's Capital, its tragicomedy about Karl Marx, and Bánk bán, one of the three Hungarian classics the theatre keeps on permanently. Both are on the main stage.
Photo: Bem Mozi 31. Macskafogó, or Cat City, at the Bem Mozi
Wednesday 14 October, 19:00
Bem Mozi, District II
Béla Ternovszky's 1986 animated caper, a mouse secret service against the cats of Planet X. The Bem lists this screening with English subtitles, which is what makes it watchable if you have no Hungarian.
Photo: House of Music Hungary 32. DOME_CONCERTFILM Vad Fruttik
7 to 31 October, Wednesdays 14:00 to 14:30 and Saturdays 17:30 to 18:00
Sound Dome, House of Music Hungary, City Park, District XIV
Half an hour inside the house's 360 degree cinema, with a Vad Fruttik concert shot on spherical cameras. You end up sitting between the band and the crowd rather than in front of them.
Photo: A38 Hajó 33. Danko Jones at the A38
Thursday 15 October, 19:00, gate opens at 18:00
A38 concert hall, by Petőfi Bridge, District XI
Thirty years of no-frills rock'n'roll from the Canadian band, in the ship's concert hall on the tour for their twelfth album, Leo Rising. The British band Split Dogs support.
Photo: Bem Mozi 34. Battleship Potemkin at the Bem Mozi
Thursday 15 October, 18:15
Bem Mozi, District II
Eisenstein's 1925 silent film about a mutiny at sea and a massacre on shore, with Hungarian and English subtitles. It is the fifth instalment of the Bem's golden age of silent film strand.
Photo: Bem Mozi 35. Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies at the Bem Mozi
Thursday 15 October, 20:00
Bem Mozi, District II
Tarr's film from 2000, in Hungarian with English subtitles. A town on the Great Hungarian Plain, and a crowd that turns.
36. Budapest Fafesztivál, the city's tree festival
15 to 17 October, from 18:00 on 15 October, then walks and demonstrations from 09:00 on 16 and 17 October
Parks, streets and woods across Budapest
Three days spent looking at the city's trees, from a photography show about its oldest survivors to a public planting in Szent István Park. Everything is free, and everything but the planting wants a place booked first.
Photo: Papp László Budapest Sportaréna 37. Molière. L'Opéra Urbain at the Budapest Arena
15 to 18 October, Thursday and Friday 20:00, Saturday 15:00 and 20:00, Sunday 14:00
Papp László Budapest Sportaréna, District XIV
The French musical about Molière, voted the country's best original show after its Paris premiere, plays five performances at the arena over four days.
38. Art Market Budapest
15 to 18 October, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 to 19:00, Friday 11:00 to 21:00
MTK Sportpark, Kerepesi út, District VIII
Four days of contemporary art at the MTK Sportpark, where galleries from across Europe and well beyond it bring work that is for sale, and the fair leans deliberately towards artists still making their name.
Photo: A38 Hajó 39. Dub Pistols with Freestylers and Mango at the A38
Friday 16 October, 19:30, gate opens at 18:30
A38 concert hall, by Petőfi Bridge, District XI
Dub, hip-hop, ska and breakbeats from the London band, with the Freestylers and Mango on the same bill in the ship's concert hall. This is the rescheduled date for a show put back from November 2025, and tickets bought for the original night still stand.
Photo: MVM Dome 40. André Rieu at the MVM Dome
16 to 17 October, gates 18:00, concert 19:30
MVM Dome, Üllői út, District IX
The Dutch violinist and his orchestra are back in Budapest for two nights, and the showmanship is as much the point as the playing.
Photo: Trafó House of Contemporary Arts 41. ORBIT by SUB.LAB.PRO and Marie Gyselbrecht
16 to 17 October, 19:00, 50 minutes
Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Main Hall, District IX
A dance theatre piece about attachment and the forces that pull people together and apart, danced by the young company SUB.LAB.PRO trains. Fifty minutes in the Main Hall, marked English friendly by the house.
Photo: Puskin Mozi 42. 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: Józsefvárosi Gazdálkodási Központ 43. Teleki Zsibi, the flea market at the Teleki téri piac
Saturday 17 October, 09:00 to 13:00
Teleki téri Piac, District VIII
A morning of second-hand stalls in the Teleki téri market hall, one of the market's own autumn flea markets. Nostalgic bits and pieces and old clothes, with Halloween costumes in mind this time.
Photo: A38 Hajó 44. Backstage Budapest: a tour of the A38
Saturday 17 October, gates at 09:00, then four tours running between 10:00 and 15:30
A38 Ship, District XI
A daytime walk through the A38, the parts the public sees and the parts it does not: the original ship fittings, the concert hall built around its own acoustics, the backstage made out of the old engine room, the stern and the studios.
Photo: Gyermekvasút 45. Vásári vigadalom: family day on the Children’s Railway
Saturday 17 October, 10:00 to 16:00
Children’s Railway, Hűvösvölgy station, District II
The Children’s Railway gives its Hűvösvölgy end over to folk traditions and old fairground games for the day, and puts stock on the line that rarely comes out, the steam locomotive and the Lillafüred railcar among it.
Photo: A38 Hajó 46. Cem Yildiz and Balkan Taksim on the A38
Saturday 17 October, from 23:45
A38 concert hall, by Petőfi Bridge, District XI
Anatolian folk pushed through an electric saz, a voice and a bank of machines, late on a Saturday night in the ship's concert hall. The Romanian act Balkan Taksim play before him, with Daniel Ban and Daniel Santiago also on the bill.
Photo: Uránia Nemzeti Filmszínház 47. Met Live in HD: Verdi's Macbeth at the Uránia
17 to 25 October, 19:00 for the live relay, 18:00 for the repeat
Uránia National Film Theatre, District VIII
A new Metropolitan Opera staging of Verdi's Shakespeare opera, with Lise Davidsen as Lady Macbeth and Quinn Kelsey in the title role. The Uránia takes the live relay from New York on the Saturday and repeats it on the Sunday of the following week.
Photo: A38 Hajó 48. Des Rocs and Finn Forster on the A38
Sunday 18 October, 20:00, gate opens at 18:30
A38 concert hall, by Petőfi Bridge, District XI
Danny Rocco, who performs as Des Rocs, is back in Budapest with a set built for a room much bigger than this one. Finn Forster from Britain shares the bill in the ship's concert hall.