|
The festival has ended. Thank you for being here! See you next year! :D
If you want to be notified of news and future website updates, please sign up by clicking here!
Hello there! Danubiando - Budapest Tango Festival has a short but turbulent history, with slight soap opera overtones (quite fitting for a tango festival), nevertheless, we never met anybody who did not enjoy it (with the notable exception of those, whom we could not let in during the first festival some years ago - a slight miscalculation of on-site ticket demand on our side - but who could have known there will be twice as many people coming as registered?). This year we'll have quite a list of participants, even more dancing opportunities (over 16 hours of tango a day - if you can take it!), so we are fairly confident that you are going to have fun... well, starting with the webpage, where we hid all the information behind the pictures. Click this link to see a rare gem of a backstage tango (a classic one) by a very content and happy Otros Aires at last year's closing milonga around 6am! 
The full and printable programme of the festival is available here with all the relevant data, including schedule, locations, recommendations. Please note that we will not update the whole website from now on, only this PDF file. If there are corrections, or last minute updates we will let you know through our Twitter channel at twitter.com/danubiando and the sidebar of this page.
There had been tango festivals in Hungary before Danubiando. At the beginning it was a gathering to move the small local community, at the time, around a bit. With time the small community has grown and wanted to meet others from abroad. So, we created Danubiando: 8 days of festival integrated into the beautiful city of Budapest in many ways, with the greatest tango masters around the world. The goal: to get You come here.
We tried to create a festival where everyone is content, so both festival people and the masters want to come back. Our first festival was a surprise for us as well. A lot more people came than we expected. At some locations we simply had to close ticket sales on site to avoid crowding.
Unfortunately, the second year we had some domestic troubles to tend to, so we could only do a 'lite' version of Danubiando. Nevertheless, with the help and support of the masters, the international and local community we did it and people loved it even more!
Danubiando is always organized in the last weeks of August, from Sunday to Sunday. We try to balance the calendar with the end-of-summer free time of everyone, including orchestras, masters and the festival goers.
We find milonga locations that are interesting in themselves. Normally, even us Hungarians don't have the possibility to dance at some of these during the year. We need the synergy of out-of-season timing, the larger number of dancers and of course the hype surrounding the festival to be able to book some of the locations.
We'd also like you to see Budapest and it's many faces. Hungary is a thermal water empire. We have dozens of large Turkish baths all over Budapest, which tangueros love!
The opening event is a now traditional street dance: the Budapest Tango Marathon. We dance tango at several picturesque open air locations in downtown Budapest during the day. There are some people who can't make it to the festival itself, but they come here for this event specifically as a weekend excursion even from the far side of Europe.
The evening milongas start from 10pm and finish at 4am this year. We'll also have live music at all milongas but one, and the masters perform from Thursday to Sunday.
After last year's success, we will have afterparty milongas after the evening milongas, so in case you want to tango instead of sleeping, there you go! If you don't know how to get there, just wait at the milonga exit after it finishes, you'll get assistance!
Budapest isn't a huge metropolis, but still the 8th biggest city in Europe. However, as parties go, it definitely gives you more than it's size suggests. Did you know that Budapest hosts the biggest music festival in Europe, luring over a quarter million visitors to Budapest for a whole week?
...and now on Danubiando.
This year we will have a great programme that spans the entire week. While the weekend milongas have their appeal (the performances), the milongas early in the week have their quirks too (cool locations, and they are very cheap).
We will have some new talent compared to last year, like Horacio Godoy and his new partner Magdalena Gutierrez. Horacio, the owner of the milonga La Viruta in Buenos Aires will also DJ on Friday!
This year we are going to have 8 orchestras playing. Our Argentine guests are Mariano Bujacich and his orchestra, residents at the tango show of Café Tortoni, working at milongas all over Buenos Aires. With the voice of Sergio Gobi they deliver you back into the golden age of tango, with classical arrangements most contemporary orchestras can't or won't play.
Of course, Sebastian Arce and Mariana Montes will also teach and perform in 2011 as well. We cannot thank them more for their work and the enormous support they gave us last year! We always offer the masters time to chill off in Budapest, so they can rest and socialize during the festival and not always just the work-work-work. Sebastian will be here with us all week...
Soledad is a Russian orchestra that most of Europe just getting to know. Sebastian Arce and Mariana has been working with them for years now, as well as Chicho and Juana, Pablo and Noelia, Esteban Moreno and Claudia Codega and others. Their fresh, energetic interpretation of golden age tangos truly rocks, but they also play Guardia Vieja era songs and modern renditions as well.
Yes, yes. The star of Tango Lesson is coming. We all know and love the movie that propelled Pablo Veron to fame, but really it's just a movie. Several decades of professional experience on stage as dancer and choreographer, teaching around the world and experience in several other dance genres as well, however, gives him a unique perspective on tango. Also, he is notoriously elusive, so you can't just drop in to his class at another festival next week.
Cecilia García and Serkan Gokcesu are a couple in life as in tango. Cecilia danced with Horacio Godoy, has a long list of dance experience outside tango and an even longer one in tango. Serkan is from Turkey (probably the largest tango community on the continent). He was previously dancing with a childhood friend of his, Özhan Araz, in a formation similar to Hermanos Macana, but with a more contemporary style.
The Budapest tango cowboys & cowgirls are back again. The 7 member orchestra with tango teachers & DJs, tango dancers at the instruments who happen to be musicians as well have a very special connection to their music. While essentially a semi-professional group of enthusiasts, they are becoming regulars at the tango festivals in Europe, including Vienna, Prague, Belgrade and Lausanne.
Our Northern neighbours in Slovakia started tango with playing mostly Piazzolla similar to many other musicians in Europe. However, they fell in love with the real tango, which, coupled with their rigorous academic training and their diverse interests, created a mix dancers love: golden age music with a contemporary energy.
Beltango, and the tango life in Belgrade is so connected to Budapest, that sometimes we feel they are just in the city nearby. Beltango was a part of the Hungarian tango life for a decade now, but they also play at festivals and concerts around the world. Their style spans a great distance in time and space from Canaro to Piazzolla to even modern, and contemporary alternative music, such as Hugo Diaz or Haris Alexiou.
These guys, along with their Greek friends were the essential 'partypeople' of previous festivals. They really do know how to party. Also, they know how to tango: Dimitris and Mariana live and teach in Paris today. You can also see them as performers at the grand milonga on Saturday.
Ismael Ludman and Maria Mondino has grown to be as great performers as they are subtle teachers and simply: charming people. We love their subtle but mature dancing style, their natural kindness to everybody and their unwaning energy. Last year they had been with us all week, every milonga, every afterparty, even after teaching and performing.
While this year we won't have Otros Aires playing, we will have a home grown orchestra playing the covers of their songs, and Bajofondo's, and Aubele's and Narcotango's... and many other modern and alternative tangos you can think of! Cortina will play at the opening milonga on Margaret Island.
Tango Harmony got it's name from the Art's Harmony Association, which is the official donor organization of the festival. The professional orchestra is playing tangos for over a decade now mainly for concerts and stage shows, but with increasing emphasis on dance music. Recently, they redone their entire repertoire to suit casual dancers. Last year they played at the Paris Grand Emporium Ballroom at the festival with great success.
Divertango is a trio of tango musicians all of them also playing in different bands. The guitar, bandoneon, double bass combo with a traditional approach to tango produce a very special sound, so if you like Grela or Diaz, you'll love them too!
'Tango Café' every afternoon from Monday to Sunday 3 pm to 9 pm. The low entry fee includes a drink of your choice (3-4 euros - so you almost pay just for the drink), and you can warm up your feet for the evening. DJs from the local community.
Evening milongas at Danubiando 2011:
Pierre_M is a talented VJ making tango music videos for Eletrocutango,and VJ-ing live at festivals and concerts. He worked as a director, cameraman and editor for the French TV, organized some video music tango events in France and at the HBC of the Alexander Platz in Berlin. He aims his works towards the bold mix between tango and pictures, his VJ'ing are most of the time played on Traditional Golden Age Tango music.He will do a VJ-ing session during Milonga Attila on Friday, 26 August, while Horacio Godoy is DJing! Click for the Danubiando promotional video created by Pierre_M! 
Demian Gawianski, author of 'Buenos Aires Experience, Enjoy the Tango of Learning Spanish' will hold free workshops on tango lyrics during the festival (for beginners in Spanish as well)! Demian Gawianski is a teacher of Spanish as a Second Language in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With a strong background in classical languages (Old Greek, Latin and Sanskrit) and fluent in English, French, Portuguese and German, he is dedicated to the study of different languages and cultures. Based on his firm belief that the interest in a language is usually related with a deeper interest for the culture, music or art of the people who speak it, he wrote and published the book, Buenos Aires Experience, Enjoy the Tango of Learning Spanish. He has also translated the book of poems Listening Inside the Dance: A Beginners Journey into Tango, by Elizabeth Garber, and released in partnership with Paul Weiss the 2-DVD set The Tango of Spanish. He has held workshops at international tango festivals in Portland, Oregon (USA, 2007 and 2009), in Wellington (New Zealand, 2008) and in Berlin (Germany, 2009), among other events. 
Kinga Lakner will be the official photographer of the festival. She worked with several tango dancers in Buenos Aires and Hungary beside her high profile fashion photography. She made promotional photos for and with Marina Marques, Özgür Demir, Mariana Dragone, Marcelo Gutierrez, Martín Bel, Jennifer Olson, Milonga 10, Tangolace among others. Take a look at her art photography at www.kingalakner.com and download her festival pics after 1 September from our Facebook page! Have fun!
We are a very small team, so we need to work a lot for this festival. We also have a lot of fun doing it.
We try to organize everything so, that all of your needs as dancer, tourist and festival participant is served. We have hostesses at each location to attend to your needs, and we have 'insider' dancers helping out at every step who know what to do. If you are lost, you can always find us at our personal phone numbers, even at night.
We have several people in the organization team and a lot of others assist us from the community and we even get help from abroad. We thank everyone who was and will be part of the effort! Without the people who help us prepare, who take care of the guests, help to get the news of Danubiando to you, and those who guide our numerous guest performers, masters, orchestras day-to-day during the event, the festival would not be the same.
We Hungarians are usually seen as more Mediterranean in attitude than most nations in these parts. While our bolstering pride and hot temperament can be a bane, we are also great hosts when it comes to that. We love to pamper our guests...as you can see... :D
We really want you to have fun and not just the tango. You can tango anywhere, but to have fun, we need that special something that only people can bring. We create the atmosphere, but don't forget: You make the party rock!
|
