Last year's Budapest parade was "successful to the point of catastrophe," said Verók. "The participants relieved themselves in all of the (district's) doorways" and left behind a large amount of rubbish, in spite of the fact that the local government set up several rubbish bins and portable toilets along the parade's path, he said. An examination of the noise produced by the parade shows it was twice as loud as that allowed, he added. The district's residents cannot be submitted again to such a racket.
Verók noted that he had told the municipal council of Budapest that a venue other than Andrássy Street, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, should be found for the parade.
Zoltán Tisza, a spokesman for the municipal council of Budapest, told MTI that the council had granted the organisers of the Budapest Parade a three-year permit for the event in 2005, just as the council had for the organisers' other big event: the Sziget Festival, a week-long musical extravaganza on an island in the Danube. He said that only the organisers could say whether the parade would take place or not and pointed out that they had, in fact, made a statement in January that the parade would be canceled this year.
Viktória Vető, the spokeswoman for the Budapest Parade and the Sziget Festival, confirmed for MTI that the organisers had already announced in January that the Budapest Parade would not take place in 2007 because of a lack of funding. She added that funding for the event, which is free of charge, comes entirely from sponsors.
Though the parade has been cancelled, the traditional post-parade Bónusz party, will still take place, on August 25 at the Népstadion Park, Vető said.
Vető noted that not all of the District VI mayor's complaints had been realistic.
