The national holiday of March 15, with all its free museum admissions and family-friendly events, always signals the start of spring in Budapest. Among the more unusual happenings this March, Planet Budapest carries the message of sustainability with immersive film spaces and interactive installations, while Comic Con brings everyone’s favourite fantasy characters to the Hungarian capital.
Of the gigs, shows and films, Montréal post-rockers God Speed! You Black Emperor make a welcome return to the Dürer Kert, Swiss samplers The Young Gods play the A38 and the wonderful Bem cinema warms up for Oscar night.
With five event spaces, Time Out Market Budapest hosts live music, jazz nights, Budapest’s top DJs, wine tastings, workshops and surprise shows. Every visit is a new experience – it might be a jazz band setting the tone for dinner, a winemaker guiding a tasting or a pop-up art exhibition tucked away in the corner.
See what’s on at Time Out Market Budapest!
To celebrate Hungary’s national holiday of March 15, admission is free to all the city’s major museums, the Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery and the National Museum among them. Note that this generally only applies to the permanent collections, not any special exhibitions.
Particularly popular is the open day at the Hungarian Parliament, for which queues form pretty early before doors open at 10am. Security checks will be fairly stringent, so leave larger bags at home. Until 6pm, visitors will be able to the see the grand staircase, the dome hall and the Holy Crown of Hungary. No prior registration is required. Regular paid-for guided tours will also be taking place on March 15.
From February 25 to March 29, for a total of 33 days, the Railway History Park in north Pest is hosting Planet Budapest 2026, an immersive, interactive attraction dealing with sustainability and the future of the Earth.
The main complex is divided into Ride, Explorers and Heroes, the first a journey through time; the second a 12-station tour stopping at energy, food and your digital footprint; and in the third, live characters engage young visitors in interactive, educational fun. Admission is free.
Idiosyncratic Montréal post-rock collective GYBE make a welcome return to Budapest as part of their tour of Eastern Europe on March 10. Releasing their award-winning albums through their own local Constellation Recordings, band founder Efrim Menuck and his ever-changing line-up have removed themselves from Spotify and other streaming services. Sticking to their guns, the band present video loops as backdrops to their stark soundscapes and instrumental crescendos, as illustrated on their acclaimed 2024 work, No Title As of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead. Support is provided by veteran composer Kristof Hahn of New York experimental band Swans. The ever-adventurous Dürer Kert should be congratulated for putting on such a challenging line-up.
On Saturday, March 28, Time Out Market Budapest celebrates the centenary of the opening of the legendary Corvin Palace with a mega late-night party. As a DJ spins the hits of decades gone by get into the spirit with a free anniversary 1926 cocktail, echoing the elegance of Budapest's Silver Age of the 1920s.
For this evening only, the Market will be open until 1am, with the full range of food and drink served. Kitchens stay open until 10pm, so everyone can indulge on this special occasion.
To mark the centenary, the Market Spirit Bar is preparing a special, dedicated cocktail. Experience the lights, rhythms and seduction of cosmopolitan Budapest between the wars: exotic promises of distant destinations beckon within the Corvin Palace. The 1926 cocktail, available throughout March, evokes this Silver Age, created from a mixture of sun-ripened passion fruit, silky rum and warm cinnamon, the perfect choice for any festive occasion. The cocktail is suitably priced at Ft 1,926 (€5.10).
Over four nights at Budapest’s State Opera House, including March 3-4, John Cranko’s three-act, six-scene ballet presents his interpretation of Pushkin’s famed literary creation Eugene Onegin. Tchaikovsky’s original score is further reinvented by Kurt-Heinz Stolze. Both choreographer and composer died half a century, having worked on other celebrated pieces by Tchaikovsky together.
This production was first staged in Stuttgart in 1965, and has since been performed in Paris, New York and by the Royal Ballet, where the South African Cranko was a young choreographer after the war. Onegin runs over two hours and 30 minutes, with two intervals.
Highlight of the month at the award-winning party boat and live venue A38 is the appearance of Swiss industrial electronica trio, The Young Gods. Swapping punk for soundscapes, samples and guitar loops 40 years ago, the Geneva group celebrated the fact with a raw 13th studio album, Appear Disappear, in 2025.
Supporting them, compatriot four-piece Tout Bleu blend cello, viola and synths to create a cinematic whole. To be staged in the main Concert Hall of the A38 from 8pm on March 11.
The wonderful Bem (Margit körút 5, 1027 Budapest), an authentically retro institution revived as a repertory cinema that screens films in original language with subtitles – often but not always English/Hungarian. It also has a popular bar.
In the run-up to the Oscars on March 15, Bem has scheduled either recent winners or those in line for an award this year.
In the coming days, look out for Hamnet, Blue Moon, Bugonia and Marty Supreme, among others. And, if you haven’t seen it yet, three-time 2025 winner The Brutalist is well worth three-and-a-half hours of your time, from 8pm on March 8. Brady Corbet’s epic tale of how a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor makes his painful way through a corrupt, post-war America while staying true to his vision.
To mark the centenary of the Corvin Palace, Time Out Market Budapest is preparing a special, historically inspired anniversary menu.
The concept is based on dishes once prepared and served in the elegant Corvin Palace building some 100 years ago. Lunch menus are being created with contemporary reinvention by four key outlets at the Market: Szaletly, Casa Christa, Canteen and LIRA by Essência. These special anniversary menus are being offered by each restaurant for one week during March, so guests can taste different dishes each visit.
The Corvin 100 menu consists of three courses – soup, main course and dessert – complemented by coffee and a drink, water, beer or tonic. The price of the entire menu is Ft 6,900 (€18.30), which includes the service charge.
In addition to the regular weekday lunch combo, this special three-course menu is available Monday through Friday from March 2-27 between 11.30am and 3.30pm.
Hungary’s first contemporary ballet company explore the depth of human relationships in this two-part adaptation of the star-crossed story of Romeo and Juliet. Playing for two consecutive nights on March 19-20, then again in May at Müpa’s prestigious Festival Theatre, the production showcases Vincze Balázs’s stunning choreography, the stage designs of Balázs Cziegler and costumes by Julcsi Kiss. As Shakespeare once more takes the global spotlight, this is a timely reminder of his everlasting appeal, no matter the art form.
If there is a band that cannot be confined to a specific genre, it is Besh o droM. For more than 25 years, the band has been mixing seemingly incompatible styles with unbridled energy: Balkan pulses, Hungarian folk, jazz and rock detours come together into a single, inimitable sound. On the stage of the House of Music Hungary, a cavalcade of rhythm and melody, virtuoso instrumentation and musical humour fuse into a real live experience. Dancing guaranteed. From 8pm on Saturday, March 21.
In March, one of the most legendary varieties of Hungarian wine, Bull's Blood, will be in the spotlight at Time Out Market Budapest. Four defining wineries will be arriving from Szekszárd and Eger, and the series will conclude with an exciting blind tasting.
The flagship of Hungarian red wines, Bull's Blood is made from a blend of several grape varieties, the backbone of which is usually Kékfrankos, accompanied by Kadarka, Merlot or Cabernet. It is a spicy, fruity, complex wine whose character varies with each winemaker.
Szekszárd and Eger interpret the same wine style in two ways: the former is rounder, fruitier and silkier; the latter is tighter, spicier and cooler in character. Guests can taste this difference throughout March.
Events
March 3 – Takler Winery (Szekszárd); guest, András Takler
March 10 – St. Andrea Winery (Eger); guest, György Lőrincz Jr.
March 17 – Heimann Winery (Szekszárd); guest Zoltán Heimann Jr.
March 24 – Gál Tibor Winery (Eger); guest, Tibor Gál
March 31 – Winelovers' Bull's Blood Tasting Evening
Hollywood superheroes and popular comic characters descend on Budapest for fans to meet, greet and present their autograph books to – it’s Comic Con 2026! Geeks, followers and aficionados can also come face-to-face with the creators behind the stories, take part in themed activities, watch the shows and scan the limited-edition merch. Dressing up isn’t obligatory but you might feel so out of place if you don't. Older visitors will be thrilled to meet legendary artist John McCrea, known for his work with Marvel and DC Comics. Hosted over two days, March 21-22, at the Budapest Congress Center.
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