Encounters
Veszprém won UNESCO’s City of Music title in 2019, as the first Hungarian city. A tangible love of music defines the city’s cultural strategy as well as the everydays of its residents, bringing the title to full bloom in recent years.
The ‘Encounters in Music City’ concert series was inspired by the UNESCO label, celebrating the universality of musical languages. The series invites Hungarian and international artists to share the stage and underscore the parallels and nuances of their musical dialects. Apart from ‘Encounters’, the city invested through programming, infrastructure development as well as international visibility into the musical sector, as many ECoC projects and events stand proof. At UNESCO’s Cities of Music meetup in Norrköping, Sweden, Veszprém presented its music education, lively scene and cultural tourism contributing to the title; to then serve as a model for Croatian contender Varaždin later in the year.
As musical programmes covering early development to rock flash mobs, street festivals and long-term educational projects prove: ‘We take part in, not just listen to music in Veszprém’ to quote the city’s motto, and everyday reality.
