Festival director István Márta said the festival, which started on Friday, was short some HUF 45 million to cover its costs until Minister of Education and Culture István Hiller phoned to promise the HUF 15 million from the ministry's budget. Hiller also said the Hungarian Development Bank would contribute a further HUF 10 million to the festival's budget.
In spite of the windfall, the festival is still about HUF 20 million over budget, said Márta. As a result, more events on the programme may have to be cancelled. Many, mostly theatre performances, have already been scrapped in order to cut costs, and the budget of a special information service for the festival has been halved. This resulted in savings of HUF 45 million from the festival's HUF 242 million budget, Márta said.
"We hope that visitors will buy many tickets...thus helping out the festival and its events," Márta said.
The organisers expect about 240,000 people to purchase tickets to the festival this year. Day-tickets cost HUF 2,000, three-day tickets are available for HUF 3,000 and ten-day passes for HUF 15,000. The festival is free of charge for children aged under 6.
The festival's events play out at venues in the villages of Kapolcs, Taliándörögd, Vigántpetend, Monostorapáti, Pula, Öcs and Nagyvázsony.
