Best of Budapest & Hungary

The Korean Cultural Festival in Budapest, starting on September 8, will showcase the diversity of Korean cultural heritage. The event will last for almost a month and will feature 12 programs and live broadcasts at four venues.

    The festival's series of concerts will showcase the many different facets of traditional Korean music, kugak, from the beginnings of ‘K-kugak’ to the present day.

    The House of Hungarian Music will host a concert by Black String, led by Ho Jun Jung, a traditional Korean Geomungo player. The NAL project, led by Ri Hi Mun, will perform folk songs from the Kjonggi Province, and Pak Ji Ha will introduce the sound of traditional Korean instruments in the language of contemporary music.

    The National Kugak Center will perform at the Erkel Theater as one of the European stops on its world tour. Their previous performance will be Chongmjo Jeryak, the ritual music of the royal ancestors at the Chongmjo Confucian Shrine. Chongmjo Jeryak was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2001. The 90-minute performance in Hungary involves 54 musicians and 18 dancers.

    Various workshops and symposiums on Korean music history and instruments are also organized at the Korean Cultural Center and the House of Traditions. Experts from the Jintu National Kugak Center, founded in 2004, will guide participants through the world of K-kugak, a traditional Korean music and dance.

    As part of the festival, the Korean Film Week will be held at the Korean Cultural Center, this time with two films focusing on Korean music and dance.

    Monk Jung Kwan will talk to the audience about health care, respect for life and the essence of Korean temple cuisine based on the concept of sustainability. The lecture will be streamed live online.