Mr Márta said it was the first time ever the festival has been unable to pay the local councils of the villages which host it. He stressed, however, that the performing artists at the festival as well as all festival staff would be paid in full.
A crisis management team is scheduled to meet Thursday to determine whether any more of the festival's events must be cancelled to cut costs. However, Mr Márta said he was confident there would be no further eliminations from the programme.
During a visit to the festival on Wednesday, State Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Culture Gergely Arató said talks on finding a solution to the festival's financing programme were ongoing and involved the Ministry of Local Governments and Regional Development, the Hungarian Festival Association and the local councils that host the festival.
Arató praised praising the Valley of Arts as a "unique and wonderful" initiative.
At the end of July, the Ministry of Education and Culture said it would award HUF 15 million from its own budget to help cover the cost of this year's Valley of Arts. Minister of Education and Culture István 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, Márta said at the time. 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.
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.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
