Fifty local performances on stage at Saint George Days

Until the end of March all guests of the 23. Saint George Days will be announced, during the last month being mentioned those which are organized independently, but their hosts find it important to be a part of the festival’s programme – claim the organizers. The news conference was mostly about the programme still ’under construction’, many guest performers and local bands were announced to be expected, latter is awaited to rise to a number of circa fifty performances.

It is an old dream of ours to host an authentic rock band’s concert, one which is renowned and respected even among the rockers by heart. There unfortunately aren’t many of these, but we are happy to have the Tankcsapda as one of our main attractions this year – says festival director Grubisics Levente. The Tankcsapda is one of Hungary’s oldest and most popular rock bands, their existence dates back to the end of the communist regime and their songs are known even by those who are not really into hardcore music genres. Officially the Saint George Days concert is part of the band’s European tour, they get on stage on Friday, May 2nd, from 23 o’clock on stage A.

Some might already know that Rúzsa Magdi is also a guest of the festival, since she already advertises her concert on her personal social media. She will entertain the community in those 90 minutes prior to Havasi Balázs pianist’s performance Sunday night. Rúzsa Magdi is one of the few who managed to overstep her ‘discovered by a talent show’ label and is nowadays is avowed both by the audience and the professionals. In 2012 she received the Artisjus Award.

Based on last year’s feedback of Smiley’s concert, we’ve felt motivated to invite a Romanian performer who is popular and sought after by the public, regardless if they’re Hungarian or Romanian, and in addition it would be nice if they had local members in the band – states Grubisics. The well-known singer Connect-R seems to be the perfect choice, for he is widely known for his quality music and dancing talent, he has his own band and the bassist Joó Sándor Sebestyén ‘Sebi’ has Saint Georgian origins. Sebi already was member of numerous musical projects from Bucharest and Budapest, by now he is mentioned as one of the best bassists of the country. Connect-R’s storming party will take place on stage A on Saturday, May 3rd, from 19:30.

Local performances during the Cultural Week and the Festival Weekend

Every year we are confronted by two major problems: not having enough local entertainers to be able to satisfy everyone, on the other hand however there are always productions which get to be left out, even if they would definitely earn a place in the programme – emphasizes the director. In total we will have 25 local productions on stage and 23 dance and music shows put together by locals throughout the Saint George Days. Regarding the total time of the planned programme, this takes up about half of it – he continues. This is why our city forms an exception, namely the local productions and performances strengthen even more the event. We were delighted to see that they are ready, too, to take up the competition and face the challenge, as it is a completely different task to attract audience to a free concert or to put together a sold out show where there is an entrance fee – he adds.

The over fifty local stage productions of the Cultural Week and the Festival Weekend were presented by Dancs Zsolt, the programme director of the event. First of them was the Mácsafej band who please those who are interested in their music Sunday, April 27th, from 19:30 in the Unitarian Church. The core of the concert will constitute their soon-to-be-published new album, thus many songs will be heard for the first time, but pieces from last year’s ‘Sung Poems’ are expected, too.
Among others, we give opportunity every year for the projects, too, this year the Saint George Pink Floyd Tribute Band’s project, The Dark Side of the Moon is such, which is fundamentally a Pink Floyd memorial evening, a dream came true for Pál Zakariás. He created a band whose only goal is to play Pink Floyd songs – says Dancs. The member are: Pál Zakariás – Hammond organ, piano; Éltes Áron – saxophone; Kertész János – drums; Pál Gábor – bass; Kertész Huba – guitar; Gergely Mátyás and Tasi Nóra – vocals.

Among the open-stage shows, the Mercedes Band’s was highlighted, which will take place Saturday, May 3rd, from 19 o’clock on stage B. The band’s second album, With Closed Eyes was released in March 2013. The rock music media praised them from the beginnings, noticing the modern style and the good quality of music and lyrics. The Black and White’s official video was broadcasted multiple times by MTV Romania.

Besides the above mentioned, stage B will host the Jazzkaláka, the Ego sum and The Crazy Plumbers, the Szekler, the Spam, the Scholastic, the Whisperblast and the MiniSnaps, too. In the Cultural Garden numerous performances of the soloists, dancers and musicians from the Folk Art School. Another first of this year is that for two days the Plugor Sándor Art School has the opportunity to show its talents in an hour. Not only the folk music, but jazz will be another main attraction of the Cultural Garden, too, having the Exit Rock Band, the St George Quintet, the Black Betty, the Transylvania Saxophone Quartet, Demeter Eli and his fellow musicians, the Éltes Áron Quartet and the Session Jazz Band local jazz bands play for us.

The organizers draw attention to buy the tickets as soon as possible because of the high attendance, for instance the Yorick Sudio’s Bucharest Calling performance the tickets are already sold out.