The Corvin Roof, one of Budapest's newest "underground" venues, is located on the top of the former Corvin Department Store, Communism's answer, decades earlier, to the shopping mall of the West. Once you make the tedious climb to its roof, you won't want to leave. And at this height, there are not neighbours to disturb with the noise, allowing the entertainment to continue until dawn.
The Corvin Roof hosts live acts almost every night of the week. Its programme boasts performances by The Freestylers from London and Dub Trio from New York, and from Hungary, Little Cow Dance Orchestra, Riddim Colony, Csókolom, Péterfy Bori and Love Band, the Szilvási Gipsy Folk Band, Irie Maffia and PASO. The broad mix of music draws an eclectic crowd, everybody from 18-year-olds with dreadlocks to 50-year-olds in Hawaiian shirts.
Though the Corvin Department Store is hardly difficult find - it's the giant box on Blaha Lujza Square - one must look for the entrance to the Corvin Roof on Somogyi Béla Street. It's a long climb to the top up a staircase, or one can take the elevator (though this is not advised for the claustrophobic or those who have had too much to drink), but the journey is well worth it.
It seems that by the time foreign acts spread news of the most popular venues on Budapest's underground scene, they are already gone, sacrificed for some property developer's grand new project. Such was the fate of the Kultiplex and West-Balkan's old location. These venues' contribution to the national cultural scene is undeniable, and, given some time, they may even have contributed to the national economy. But too often, the most interesting places become, all too soon, the stuff of legend. Make the trip to the roof before it's too late.
