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Sunday 28 August 2016

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Hay Budapest Festival 2013: Day One

Hay Budapest Festival 2013: Ed Cumming reports on day one.

Budapest - a beautiful city with an unrivalled history
Budapest - a beautiful city with an unrivalled history Photo: Alamy

The Second Hay Budapest festival was launched this morning with a press conference and at the Cervantes Institute, half a mile east of Chain Bridge. The city has turbulent history and architectural beauty in spades. Equally important, on a slightly muggy morning, the venues are all within a short walk of each other.

The gold stars of the EU hung next to the US, British and Hungarian flags alongside the lectern. It has not been the happiest year for pan-European endeavours, and the flags were a reminder that all four countries are agonising over their relationship with the continent as a whole.

Even if the general tone was defensive, however, there was plenty of fighting spirit on display. Spanish and Hungarian speeches were patiently translated into English, English ones into Hungarian. The Spanish Ambassador spoke of the urgent need for events like Hay, so that our best thinkers could continue, “año tras año,” to debate the ideas that will guide us into the 21st century.

Only later did Hungarian politics rear its head, and when it did there was a palpable tension. The panel of writers – including the American novelist Nicole Krauss and British mathematician Marcus du Sautoy – was asked whether Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s policies – including strict media laws – amount to an attack on freedom of expression, surely anathema to Hay. It fell to the Hungarian/British poet George Szirtes to respond.

“I write from outside Hungary,” he said. “When I write articles about what’s happening, people tell me that I’m attacking the country or the Hungarian people. But I never have.

“I am concerned, however. There seem to be certain tendencies in parts of the Hungarian establishment to seek to idealise the 1930s, or earlier.”

Marcus du Sautoy was more positive. “One of the reasons I got into mathematics was because it transcends languages and national borders. We all recognise stories, whether they’re novels or scientific ideas. The festival does play a political role in breaking down prejudice.”

Nothing like a bit of defiance to get a party going.

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