Magical four days during the Campus Festival at the Debrecen Big Forrest

Party Zone

“The Campus is bold, giving a true main stage to valid alternative narratives instead of hiding them in a tucked-away tent within a festival space built on quasi-mainstream pop.” (Beck Zoli, 30Y)


In the early hours of Sunday, the 16th Campus Festival in Debrecen came to an end. One of Hungary’s largest summer cultural events attracted approximately 121,000 visitors in total, with the majority attending on Friday for performances by Dimitri Vegas and Majka. This year, the organizers offered 21 program locations and nearly 300 musical productions, with 95 programs available to visitors on the final day alone. The festival’s touristic significance is evident as Debrecen and its surroundings were fully booked for the four days, with accommodation occupancy practically at 100%.

For several years, the Campus Festival has aimed to be a safe, family-friendly, and culturally enriching event that truly reaches all age groups. The University of Debrecen plays a significant role in the festival’s realization, with the University Space showcasing university activities alongside the music stages. This year, the offerings expanded with the University of Debrecen Stage, featuring performances from artists like Margaret Island, Brains, Manuel, T. Danny, and R-Go. Additionally, Wednesday night held a special experience for this year’s applicants, as the national Pont Ott Party was held at the Campus, where at exactly 8 PM on the main stage, Minister of Culture and Innovation Balázs Hankó announced this year’s admission scores.

“What is perhaps most important is that we can even more confidently label this year’s Campus Festival as family-friendly,” said Péter Miklósvölgyi, one of the managing directors of Debreceni Campus Nonprofit Közhasznú Kft., the festival’s organizing entity. “Compared to previous years, the presence of different age groups and generations has significantly increased at the festival, which is an important feedback for us as it means we have achieved our goal of making everyone feel good in this comfortable Nagyerdő environment.” Miklósvölgyi emphasized that the Campus still offers budget-friendly food and drink prices to festival-goers. “On three out of the four nights, we practically reached the capacity limits of the Metal-Sheet Main Stage area, symbolically putting up the ‘full house’ sign. Based on feedback from the audience and our performers, we believe we successfully closed this year, which is quite unique in today’s festival market.”

Beyond the main stage, the Campus organizers strive to make all program locations more comfortable and safer each year. Besides reducing noise pollution, sustainability and greening of the Campus are important considerations, supported by the collection of PET bottles and aluminum cans. “This year’s preparations involved 1,100 people, with 2,800 contributors working during the festival, nearly four hundred of whom were responsible for the audience’s safety,” said László Páll, the other managing director of Debreceni Campus Nonprofit Közhasznú Kft. “Our goal was to speed up entry, and the new system worked well without any significant delays or long waiting times. The weather was kind to us, allowing us to close this year without major issues. We began restoring the Nagyerdei körút to traffic early in the morning and will complete all restoration work soon so that the Nagyerdei Park can be accessible to everyone again.”

At Campus, music remained the primary focus. “It’s heartening to see how many people with diverse musical tastes and styles attend the festival. Within the varied and wide-reaching program offerings, it was particularly exciting to host 15 international acts from 13 countries. Rita Ora, the sixteenth, unfortunately, had to cancel due to hospitalization in Budapest the night before her performance, leading us to reorganize Saturday’s schedule. However, we feel that the atmosphere remained unaffected. We can already recall many memorable moments from the performances of domestic artists. It’s significant that some important bands in the music scene (such as Amorf Ördögök, reuniting after seven years, and the legendary Thy Catafalque) performed exclusively at our festival this summer. The acoustic concert by Tankcsapda was also a special occasion,” said András Süli, the program director. Besides music, there were numerous other programs: in the notably colorful civil village, alongside 47 social organizations, there were unique children’s programs and artistic activities. The Csokonai National Theatre was present, an abstract poetry wall was created, and the street theater parade remained a favorite photo theme for festival-goers.

Each year, the Campus Festival emphasizes raising awareness for a chosen cause. Last year, HUF 12 million was raised from VIP supporter tickets, donated to the István Regőczi Foundation helping children orphaned by the coronavirus and the Debrecen Charitable Committee. This year, the collection was for Benjámin Micskó. Benjámin (Beni) is 4 years old and suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and one of the world’s most expensive drugs can help him. The Campus community joined the Save Beni Foundation, raising HUF 12.5 million from the VIP reception.

In the coming days, extensive efforts will be made to restore the area, and dismantle stages and other structures. But the unparalleled Debrecen festival experience remains, paving the way for the next one in 2025. The seventeenth Campus Festival will welcome festival-goers from across the country in Debrecen’s Big Forest from July 16 to 20, 2025.

(Campus Festival)

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