At the beginning of February, chairman of the European Parliament's cultural committee Doris Pack reported on programmes in Pécs, as well as in Essen and Istanbul, which are sharing the European Capital of Culture title this year.
In the middle of March Pécs will take its programme to the International Tourism Bourse in Berlin. The programme was highlighted in Berlin in January too, when the city showed it to visitors at Grüne Woche, a big food industry trade fair.
An international press conference aimed at bringing more people to Pécs this year was held in Venice on the last day of the city's famous carnival.
Tamás Lakner
The Bartók Men's Chorus, sponsored by regional bus company Pannon Volán, will represent Pécs in the United States at the triennial conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Minneapolis between February 27 and March 5. The chorus's Liszt Prize-winning director Tamás Lakner will give a presentation on the choral works of Zoltán Kodály at the conference. The chorus will also give performances at other venues in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The programme for the trip can be heard at the Cella Septichora in Pécs on the evening of February 21.
Artists from Pécs will be featured at the Sarajevo Winter Festival on February 21-23. On the first day of the festival, Trio Enigma will give a concert and the Közelítés Association will undertake a light painting show. The Pécs Ballet will perform on the 22nd and Neofolk will play a concert on the 23rd. As in Venice, an international press conference promoting Pécs2010 will take place.
Pécs's 2010 European Capital of Culture Programme is also being promoted around Hungary. This year's Búso festivities in Mohács, not far from Pécs, are taking place under the aegis of Pécs2010.
Busó
The Busó festivities, inscribed in 2009 on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, are a six-day carnival in late February to mark the end of winter, named for the busós, frightening-looking costumed people (traditionally men) wearing wooden masks and big woolly cloaks.
The Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra, an ambassador for Pécs2010, will perform in their hometown together with the Hungarian mezzosoprano Andrea Meláth and the bass Peter Mikulas, from Slovakia, on February 18.
