?Judging from ticket sales, there are 10-15 percent more people in the village now than at half-time last year,? festival director István Márta said. The festival has hosted almost 500 events so far, with only four or five cancellations due to illness or downpours, he added.
Some of the most popular performances have been ones by the folk group Muzsikás, which played on four days, and the percussion group Amadinda. Capacity crowds also heard world music concerts at an abandoned quarry in Öcs, one of the villages north of Lake Balaton where the festival is taking place.
Younger festival goers have appreciated the rock stage in the village of Monostorapáti. Here performances by Kispál és a Borz, Kaukázus, Beat Dis, Quimby, Ádám Török with Mini and Tibor Tátrai with Magyar Atom have already taken place, but more popular acts are to follow. Still on the lineup are Sid and Bikini, Kiscsillag, KFT, Hobo Blues Band, Hársfa, Zsuzsa Varga with Stopsonic and Anima Sound System.
Friends of the theatre have enjoyed performances by third-year students at the Theatre and Film Academy as well as by the Krétakör Theatre. The latter is performing in the old space communications base in Taliándörögd. Budapest?s Bárka Theatre has also staged outstanding performances in the village of Pulla.
This year?s festival also boasts a Jewish Cultural Festival. The two-day event in Taliándörögd started on Wednesday. On the same day, a two-day festival celebrating the culture of the Csángó, a group of ethnic Hungarians living in Romania, started. Sixty Csángó dancers and musicians will perform for the festival.
Also popular among festival goers are heritage tours led by experts from the Ministry of Education and Culture through the villages hosting the event, Márta noted.
About 20,000 people a day came to the festival at the weekend, but between 12,000 and 14,000 visitors a day come during the week.
For more information on the Valley of Arts visit: http://kapolcs.szinhaz.hu/index.php?id=427&cid=4893
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
