Budapest Local City Tips And Events

Amazing beers, street food, live music on leafy Szabadság tér 

Late summer in Budapest offers a bunch of things to do, but let me focus on one of the best this time: the Downtown Beer Festival on Szabadság tér, between August 29th to September 3th, with the best local and international craft beers you could ask for.

Great street food, amazing craft beers, live music with local bands, and all this in a really cool park near the Parliament where you can enjoy the summer night with your friends, tasting beer while munching on your first lángos and listening to the local bands.

Credit: Website Sorfesztival

Free entrance & how to taste beer at the festival

This is the seventh time the event is organized, and last year it was an absolute success. Entrance is free, but to be able to try the beers, you have to buy the official beer glass of the event (around 3500 HUF = 9 eur for the regular one, or 5000 HUF = 13 eur for the fancy one).

You get a glass of beer for free with the purchase of the glass, and the prices of the drinks are OK bearing in mind how special a lot of the stuff is.

Credit: Website Sorfesztival

Aftermovie Budapest Beer Festival: Belvárosi SorFestival 2023

Here you have an example from previous years about what you can find; 

Beer in Hungary: it’s finally great!

Hungarians always took a great deal of pride in their wines, but until recently their beer selection was rather limited: the same plain lagers would be offered in every dive without any variety. That is, until the glorious craft beer revolution took the country by surprise and saw microbreweries pop up one after the other all over the place.

Nowadays cool places will have a great selection of local and international favorites, and even the big beer makers have had to introduce some new diversity to keep up with the times.

Credit: Website Sorfesztival

The venue

Szabadság tér is between St. Stephen’s Basilica and the Parliament – so if you’re looking for things to do before/after, you could take a mini Budapest tour and take a stroll by the Danube to the Chain Bridge, stopping by the Shoes by the Danube promenade; or walk all the way to the top of the Basilica for the best view of the city.

Crossing the river, you can also take the funicular to the Castle District. Szabadság tér is an easy walk from the Arany János utca (M2) or Kossuth tér (M3) metro stops, or even from Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út (M1).

Enjoy! Recommended hostel

Maverick Hostel Budapest a great choice if you want to be close to the festival and right in the heart of the city.