Hongaars voorzitterschap trapt af met groots openingsfeest (en)

Europe is Us - this is the title of the big New Year’s Eve party to be thrown to see in the New Year and the Hungarian Presidency i at Millenáris, the Budapest Millennium Centre. The Hungarian public television channels m1 and m2 will broadcast some of the programmes live between 11 pm and 12:30 am. Participants will be able to see the New Year address of Hungarian President Pál Schmitt on the big screen.

The programmes will start at 9 pm in three locations: Teátrum theatre, Hall B, and in the open air. It would be worthwhile to come a little earlier to check out the installation of Nonexistent Objects in the park. Staged by Mihály Buzás, fictitious art analyst, Zoltán Zugmann, the Corinthian pillar of Hungarian degenerative grammar, Erzsébet Túri, costume designer of the Budapest Operetta Theatre, the extraordinary installation displays objects which are elemental parts of our Hungarian vocabulary, yet we might not have actually ever seen them. Your New Year’s Eve fun may well start with an inkling of what halvány dunszt or radai rosseb “are like”, and once you’ve got the picture, you can switch to the concerts of bands with less fancy names but equal fame.

Illustrious line-up

There is an illustrious line-up for the evening: Dresch Quartet are poising on the verge of jazz, Balkan Fanatik takes the Bartók-Kodály folk traditions onto electronic fields, warming up the floor for the Budapest Folk Band. In their latest, Presidance will show us how to fill hours of layover at an airport Tranzit with humour and world folk dancing. Szirtes Edina Mókus sings to eclectic folk and modern rhythms by Fabula Rasa will follow on the dance with their consciously multi-style music combining classic, folk and contemporary rhythm, then Budapest Bar opens with the cream of contemporary pop and rock music playing soundtracks from old classic Hungarian movies.

Of course, there is no New Year’s Eve party without special guests: Mazz Swift, the beautiful singer-violinist, nota bene, he is also a black-belt in hapkido and a fitness guru, a computer games geek, and has no fear of eating three bowls of dumplings; Brian Kellock jazz pianist is welcome on any stage in the world, still he feels most at home in an Edinburgh pub with friends surrounding; Brazilian João Egashira, of Japanese descent, is just as talented at playing the guitar than at domesticating grumpy waiters.

After the national anthem and fireworks at midnight, Borlai Gergo and Szalóki Ági kick-start the New Year, meeting in virtual space for Kishúg, an electro-acoustic mashup of Hungarian, Roma and Turkish tunes and contemporary poems. As the party draws closer to the morning light, Heaven Street Seven and Régi nóta with Szucs Krisztián will leave no doubt that in 2011 we are going to feel in heaven - please note the suggestive rhyme.