National Day

Hungarian National Day – 22nd August, 2010

We celebrate Hungary’s National Day with three different events at the Expo. The official opening ceremony will take place in the Expo Center Atrium in the morning. This exclusive event will host high-ranking Chinese and Hungarian delegations. The program will present a 20-minute foretaste of the evening gala with Bea Palya and her band, Mónika Vida, a 13-year-old pianist, who attends the Special School for Exceptional Young Talents.

The highlight of the Hungarian National Day is the evening gala named „The City and the Music”. Like the main show of any other National Days, ours will also be held in the Auditorium of the Expo Center, which is suitable to receive an audience of 2,500. Although the festive program itself is based upon Hungarian music, the event will be different from a traditional musical performance. The gala will cover the whole spectrum of Hungarian musical literature from folk music to the 20th century’s Hungarian compositions. The show – among others - will include the works of Ferenc Liszt, Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, György Kurtág and Péter Eötvös. Today’s most famous artists are going to perform extraordinary productions specially composed to this very event. We can find Erika Miklósa opera singer, Bea Palya singer, Ferenc Snétberger guitarist, the Modern Art Orchestra, Szeged Contemporary Ballet and Experidance among the artists as well. An extraordinary background screening will be presented during the gala by Bordos.ArtWorks and invited co-artists. This group delivered the 3D animation for the official opening ceremony of the Palm Island in Dubai.

On the 22nd of August Hungary will serve the Expo visitors with open-air programs. We’ll celebrate the Hungarian National Day with all-day series of concerts at Europe Square, close to the Hungarian Pavilion. Students from Folk Music Department of The Liszt Academy of Music present the diverse Hungarian folk music traditions – accompanied by folk dance show and public dance.