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The Hungarian State Folk Ensemble celebrated its 70th anniversary with the number one professional folk dance in Hungary. Introducted their jubilee season with colourful program offers at the press meeting at the Hungarian Huse of Tradition Budapest. has officially begun and will last until spring 2022. 

The outstanding event of the summer will last unti soring 2022 with the series of the 70-year-old Dance-Festival. Performance at the Szeged Open Air Games. They will present a film, release a photo album about the life of the band, have an outdoor photo exhibition, and in the Fall they will have a premier and a European tour. 

Miklós Rábai – founder of the ensemble, was commissioned in 1950 to organize the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, and the first performance took place on 3 April 1951 at the Opera House, together with the Moysev ensemble. On 14 May 1951, the first solo presentation of the Choir of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble was held at the Municipal Theater (later Erkel Theater). Miklós Rábai was succeeded by Sándor Tímár and Gábor Mihályi among others, and during the three great periods of its history the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble became the most prestigious folk dance ensemble in the country, and its colorful and rich repertoire elevated it to the rank of the world’s most traveling companies. Over its seven-decade existence, they have performed on the stages of 50 countries in four parts of the world and more than 5 million viewers around the world have celebrated their most popular shows with an ovation.

Their 70-year-old festive piece, “Colours of 70 Years”, is a diverse and exciting selection of the most successful performances in the company’s history, conjures up the art of the ensemble’s large-format creators on the stage of the House of Traditions​​.​ 

From the 1950s to the present day, the all-time art of the legendary ensemble is presented in the Cathedral Square of Szeged​. ​In 70 years around the world, an open-air exhibition will open in front of the ensemble’s headquarters, the House of Traditions, in Corvin Square. The exhibition presents the history and artistic achievements of the 70 years on tableau, billboards, monitors and puppets dressed in costumes. Visitors to the exhibition can be sure that the dancers and musicians of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble are the most successful ambassadors of Hungarian folk culture in the world.

In the summer you will be able to meet the large-scale productions of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble in several locations, and it will be a high-profile and also jubilee performance of their 20-year-old show, The Sun Legend in Tokaj.​ 

In the 20 years since the 21st century dance theater show, surrounded by a magical meddle of dynamics, tradition and mysticism, has enjoyed more than 200 tumultuous successes in Hungary and abroad, from China to Russia and Macedonia to France.

Picture from the press meeting will be coming soon.

Until then here’s a glance into a short film taken at the House of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble.

​Update Aggie Reiter