In principle, the Vörösmarty square Christmas market will not be missed this year
The municipality of Belváros-Lipotváros gave its consent in principle for the organizers of the Advent Basilica event, which was twice voted the best in Europe, to organize this year’s Christmas market on Vörösmarty Square.
According to press reports published last week, it was suggested that this year’s festive event will not be held.
The head of Budapest Brand, Csaba Faix, made a statement about the case, saying, among other things:
This year, the capital will not organize a Christmas market because there is not enough time to prepare the event.
The Budapest non-profit company that organized the fair last year started negotiations with Belváros earlier, however, the partnership negotiations ultimately did not lead to success, as Budapest Brand could only undertake the organization of the fair if it were to cooperate for a period of two years.
The V. district management responded to the above statement, emphasizing that fair negotiations had previously been held with Budapest Brand in order to cooperate, but instead of the two-year commitment of the capital city company, the downtown municipality chose an agreement upon request based on mutual satisfaction, as they say.
The municipality of Belváros-Lipotváros stipulated that they are committed to the high-quality, careful operation of Vörösmarty tér and, above all, to the needs of the population and thus to the realization of the harmonizing use of public space, so these aspects were also taken into account when organizing the Christmas market. They added: in the organization of the fair, they wished to cooperate with a partner who has sufficient professional experience and local knowledge and can undertake the implementation of the fair while applying the above principles.
It is worth highlighting that in a June post on Budapest Brand’s Facebook page, Csaba Faix openly stated that the income from the fair will not be used for the operation of the square – for green space maintenance and public cleanliness tasks. As he put it:
The Vörösmarty Square Christmas is not primarily a business, but one of the city’s most important winter (tourist) attractions. And when it does generate business and profit, we use that money for cultural programs in the capital. Among other things, we paid for the Budapest Spring Festival or the recently concluded Budapest tuning tender
– District V intends to use 100% of the revenues from the utilization of Vörösmarty tér for the maintenance of the public space, in line with the previous practice in the capital
– highlighted the municipality of Belváros-Lipotváros in its announcement.