Festeres Band

The young musicians in Festeres Band share at least two major life events: attending the same folk music school in district III, Budapest, and falling for the special charm of the folk music of Csángó people in Moldavia, Romania. These melodies and songs come from an isolated Hungarian community, who have preserved archaic layers of folk music diluted elsewhere, while maintaining a freshness and strong bonds to the community’s life. Festeres play and hand over this heritage in its authentic form at concerts, dancehouses, workshops, teaching sessions for kids and adults. They are happy to play at parties, weddings and accompany dance productions with live music.

CONTACT: szabo.marton@festeres.hu / +36 20 551 4165

Dűvő

Looking back to four decades of playing folk music, Dűvő band has been around since the beginnings of the dancehouse movement. They play the music of all the ethnic communities in the Carpathian Basin, and keep on recording and teaching folk music. They are regular guests at the most prominent Hungarian festivals, and have represented the folk heritage of the country on foreign stages on many occasions. Active in the current formation since 2008, the core of the band are the Hrúz brothers, Dénes and Szabolcs, joined by ex-Méta member Albert Mohácsy and Zsolt Nagy, and the young talent Júlia Kubinyi. They bagged the most presitgeous award of the genre, Young Artist of Folk Arts, as early as 1983, and have been voted „Excellent Ensemble” twice since. Further trophies include Imre Madács award given by Nógrád County Municipality, and the Pro-Arte and Pro-Urbe awards received from the City of Salgótarján.

CONTACT: duvo@duvo.hu

Bakator

Bakator aims to keep the treasure of folk music in its true form: as a constant life companion. They fittingly accompany several folk dance troupes in the Eastern region of Hungary – Szivárvány, Szélrózsa, Zemplén, Körös-Körül and Hímes Folk Dance Groups. They regularly perform at concerts and weddings, and have a close connection to Bocskai Folk Dance Group in Hajdúböszörmény.

CONTACT: torokpeterandras@gmail.com / +36 20 463 6004

Pengetős Trio

The long-lost cousins – the zither, the tambourine and the kobza – meet in the music of Pengetős (Plunking) Trio and they have a lot to discuss. The Trio’s repertoire is absolutely unique thanks to the previously unknown consonance of these three instruments. The band reconstructs and remakes folk music heritage to its own image with an open mind, creativity and humility at the same time.

CONTACT: berta.alexandra@gmail.com / +36 20 491 6837 

Kalász Band

The band was formed in January 2017. The first task they faced was releasing their debut album called ’Dúzs 2017’. As we listen to the result we can see that they succeeded and they even went against usual standards. They prioritize the rawness, the movement, the strong dynamics and the freedom of music.

CONTACT: kalaszm@gmail.com // +36 30 410 0780 

Eszterlánc

Since its foundation, the musical band, Eszterlánc, has been playing the traditional folk music of the Transylvanian Heath (Mezőség). Eszterlánc has produced seven albums so far based on the musical traditions of three villages of the region. Császár Attila coordinates the work of the band, which is ultimately based on his tours of the Transylvanian Heath.

CONTACT: csaszi.eszterlanc@gmail.com / +36 30 619 3013