Events: What's on in Budapest

The award-winning images showcased as part of the global World Press Photo exhibition tell stories of war, social conflict, the climate crisis and human struggle. The selection on display in the foyer of the Biodome at Budapest Zoo offers an opportunity rarely found when scrolling through news feeds on your phone, the chance to linger over individual stories and—with the help of captions—look beyond the visual surface.

The Budapest stop of the tour is complemented by two Hungarian exhibitions: Fel is út, le is út ('Up is Road, Down is Road') shows photos taken by 24.hu photojournalists during the 2026 election, while Sortűz 1956 ('Volley of Fire 1956') revisits the 1956 Uprising through the photographs of Sándor Bojár.

Between October 2-4, the Budapest Contemporary (BCT) exhibition and art fair will be held for the fourth time at Bálna Budapest, the glass-covered building by the banks of the Danube. Contemporary visual art remains at the heart of the event, while this year’s edition also includes design, fashion and jewellery. The aim is to showcase a broader spectrum of contemporary visual culture and engage new audiences alongside those already interested in the arts. This year, BCT welcomes visitors with thousands of artworks, some 40 galleries, emerging artists and an exciting programme of accompanying events. Ticket details here.

For two weeks or more, the signature ingredients of autumn take centre stage at Time Out Market Budapest as part of its Seasons on a Plate harvest edition. Kitchens at the Market kitchens will be crafting seasonal dishes focused on grapes, pears, walnuts, plums and pumpkin.

The concept is based on the idea that while the Market’s kitchens start from the same seasonal foundation, each chef interprets the flavours of autumn in their own unique style.

The full menu:

Pingrumba

Lebanese Harvest – goats' cheese, walnuts, grapes and rocket – Ft 4,950/€13.50

LIRA by Essência

Creamy polenta with forest mushrooms – Ft 4,950/€13.50

Casa Christa

Sea bass with verjus, grapes and almonds – Ft 4,750/€13

Tuning Burger

Brie Harmony Burger – Ft 5,150/€14

Canteen by Costes Group

Confit beef cheek – Ft 5,990/€16.35

Szaletly

Lamb-stuffed peppers with carrot purée, pumpkin-apple salad and verjus-butter sauce – Ft 5,250/€14.35

Pumpkin pie with pumpkin mousse, orange-glazed pumpkin, pecans and yuzu gel – Ft 2,850/€7.80

101 Bistro

Cardamom cheesecake with five-spice plum sauce – Ft 2,450/€6.70

Anyukám Mondta

Pere & Noci – white base, fior di latte, speck ham, pear, walnuts and chili honey – Ft 5,550/€15.15

And since it is harvest season, wine won't be left out either – autumn celebrations at the Market will also feature wine tastings and other wine-related events.

On October 8, the concert hall at the House of Music Hungary will go dark as the British duo Autechre arrives for the Liszt Fest. Sean Booth and Rob Brown have been shaping the sound of experimental electronic music since 1987, their work defined by a succession of fragmented rhythms, constantly shifting timbres and unpredictable twists.

The darkness is an integral part of the experience: at the duo’s concert, the sounds command the audience's attention, allowing listeners to find their own points of reference within the interwoven musical layers. The event promises to be a curious evening for those intrigued by the more unconventional forms of electronic music.

Freshly tapped Munich festival beers, Bavarian sausages, pretzels and live music – Oktoberfest Budapest brings the Bavarian beer celebration to Erzsébet tér and Margaret Island for the last weekend of September and the first weekend of October. Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr festival beers will fill Steins, while traditional German bands provide the entertainment. Admission to both venues is free. You can join the festivities at Fröccsterasz in the heart of the city, while the Paulaner Beer Garden & Cinema on Margaret Island will feature a large Oktoberfest tent, ideal for shared communal toasts.

For the last three years, Kráter has filled a basalt quarry in Zalahaláp with monumental wooden structures, light projections and underground electronic music. This year, the organisers have sought not merely a new venue but another landscape: the Havas Villa (Halom utca 42, 1105 Budapest) in Kőbánya – a Neoclassical building that has long stood empty.

At this weekend-long festival, which fuses the architectural philosophy of urban creatives Hello Wood with the underground energy of the Katttarzis party series, the villa and its overgrown surroundings will become active elements of the installations, concerts and community events. Just as previous editions of Kráter featured workshops and collaborative creations by day, and lights, live music and electronic beats by night, the Budapest edition will continue to explore this intersection of disciplines.

To refresh your wardrobe this season, throughout September, October and November, the Secret Market will fill the terrace of the downtown Akvárium Klub with stalls featuring local designers and independent creators. You can browse a selection of clothing, bags, jewellery, ceramics and home décor items while meeting the makers themselves. Music, and food and drink offerings, turn the design market into a perfect way to spend an afternoon in the city centre. Admission is free. In the event of bad weather, the October edition will move indoors to the Akvárium bistro.

Staging off-the-wall music events of one kind or another since 2001, the team at UH Fest does not think in terms of genres. Instead, they seek out sounds that defy conventional categorisation. Over the course of a week – from September 28 to October 4 – more than 40 domestic and international artists will perform in Budapest, with a programme ranging from abstract pop and mutant dub to noise, improvisation and hybrid folk, all the way to outsider hardcore. Look out, too, for Belgian keyboard player Miaux.

The announced line-up includes the collaborative project by Heinali and Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko, the Mestizx initiative by the duo Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Frank Rosaly, Voice Actor Leila Bordreuil, Radio Hito, Gosheven, Galangolong, Michaela Antalová and Stefan Szabó, as well as several unique improvisational ensembles. Events and concerts are scheduled to take place at venues such as Trafó, Gólya and Három Holló.

See here for details on tickets and passes.

A new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts not only displays fascinating objects from Ancient Egypt, but also shows how statues, stelae, reliefs and wall paintings were made. Viewers are allowed into the creative process – through unfinished works, contemporary depictions and details that preserve traces of the making, you can see how the Egyptian masters did it.

One of the most exciting parts of the exhibition is that it brings items thousands of years old to new life with the help of modern technology. You can see a 3D animation of the internal structure of a coffin, reconstructed colours that are no longer perceptible to the naked eye, and a hologram projector that shows how the works of art might have been in their original splendour.

On the Hungarian throne for 40 years, from 1342 to 1382, King Louis I the Great, oversaw the excavation of precious metals, mainly gold, to allow his medieval realm to flourish. Born exactly 700 years ago in Visegrád, where a number of anniversary events will also take place, this ruler of the Angevin dynasty pursued a successful foreign policy and quelled internal rebellion, acquiring the Polish crown, founding Hungary's first university, and encouraging the development of arts and craftsmanship. The few remaining examples of coins and jewellery from this golden period are on display at the National Museum will be on display until the end of the year. Documentation is in English and Hungarian.