Debrecen Wine Carnival

“…Filter your wines, for that is wise.
Who cares when this or that one dies?
Why even, as we converse to-day,
The jealous present slips away.
How futile mortal plot and plan!
Come, seize the present while you can!”
(Horace)

10th DEBRECEN
WINE CARNIVAL
Great-Forest, Békás-pond
in the spirit of the best wines of the Hungarian wine regions

7-9 August 2009.

We announce this year’s  slambuc (a famous regional dish) making competition for the title of
“THE MASTER OF SLAMBUC-MAKING”

Location: Debrecen, Nagyerdei park (by Békás-pond)
Time: 8 August 2009. (Saturday) from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The aim of the competition: to popularize regional Hungarian cuisine and foster our traditions. Interested parties can sign up at the location on the day of the competition between 12:00 and 2:00 p.m. (there is no entry fee). One team consists of one cook and his/her helpers. At least five portions of slambuc should be prepared, and one of these should be presented to the jury for evaluation. Contestants should provide all the necessary raw materials for themselves. The organizers provide the area, a metal tray under the fire, firewood and drinking water. The competitors have to bring their bogrács (special Hungarian cooking pot) and stand, as well as all other necessary equipment. The dishes will be judged by a jury of famous experts. Judging will start at 4:00 p.m., and the results will be announced at 5:30 p.m. Teams awarded 1st - 3rd places will receive valuable prizes. The cook of the 1st team will win the title of “Master of Slambuc-Making 2009” and the accompanying prizes.

Wine tasting: from noon to midnight
7 Aug. 5:00 p.m.
Pelvax
Gábor Pelva - guitar, violin, vocals; György Póta – bass guitar, double bass, vocals; Áron Porteleki – drums, viola, vocals. Pelvax Zenei Műhely [Pelvax Music Workshop] was founded in the spring of 2005. Our show is a fusion of various genres as we mix musical elements of jazz, blues, rock, folk and classical music in a serious style and in the form of a dramatic stream of music flowing through space and time. We attempt to formulate all this in an ironic way, as an association game. Therefore, we employ free improvisation so characteristic of jazz with the other genres also. What we enjoy most is to play live on stage. Of course, in order to achieve this we need excellent musicians playing on multiple instruments. Recently we have turned towards the more delicate forms of sound, therefore we have returned to the classical trio form of “Szék” or from another perspective that of “Hendrix”, but we are also happy to play with guest musicians in many cases, even in a spontaneous manner. (Gábor Pelva) www.pelvax.hu

7 Aug. 7:00 p.m.
Tükrös
Éva Korpás – vocals; Gergely Koncz – violin; Attila Halmos – violin; Péter Árendás – viola; Endre Liber – viola, vocals, cimbalom; András Lelkes– double bass.

“A mi Mezőségünk [Our Transylvanian Heath] is not an anthology album. Therefore it is not our goal to present the wonderfully diverse musical world of this region in its entirety. As the title also suggests, it is rather a selection from the repertoire of various gypsy bands from villages of Mezőség standing so close to our hearts; it offers a taste of their style of playing. The selection is completely subjective: in the case of the songs featuring on the album our personal experience met with refined and excellent style of playing. These are the songs that made Hungarian folk music a defining part of our lives. We play short songs of various bands from villages of Magyarpalatka, Magyarszovát, Szék, Bonchida, Nagysajó and – as an interesting exception – that of Kolozs also. We hope that this album will provide as much pleasure for those listening to it as we have received from our excellent village musicians - and  that you will enjoy it as much as we do while playing it.”  (Péter Árendás) www.tukros.hu

7 Aug. 9:00:
Dr. Valter Blues Társasága [Dr. Valter Blues Company]
Valter Csonka – vocals; László Balogh – solo guitar Róbert Köteles – harmonica; Gábor Domján – bass guitar; László Molnár - drums

The company’s lead singer is Valter Csonka Menya  who has been one of the major players in Hungarian blues for decades. The band plays Chicago blues: besides the works of the biggest names (Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Freddie King, Albert Collins) they also write their own songs in this genre.
www.drvalterbluestarsasaga.hu

Wine tasting: from noon to midnight

8 Aug. 2:00 p.m.
Bürkös Banda [Bürkös Band]
Annamária Kulcsár –vocals; Tamás Dezsőházi – violin; Antal Kerezsi –violin; László Palazsnik - violas, piano accordion; Csaba Mózer – cimbalom; Barna Nagy – double bass

The band founded by young people with roots in the city of Nyíregyháza will publish its first record with the title “Fogadd tőlünk örök atyánk” [Accept it from us our eternal father] in which they offer a selection from the folk song treasures of the Rétköz, Nyírség, Szatmár, and Transylvanian (Szilágyság, Kalotaszeg) regions.
www.burkos.hu

8 Aug. 4:00 p.m.
Béla Ágoston és a Gabona
Béla Ágoston - saxophone, vocals, pipes; Róbert  Dely– electric guitar; Ádám Móser - harmonica, János Mazura - tuba, Tamás Geröly – drums

Saxophone, harmonica, tuba and the drums are the popular solo and accompanying instruments of jazz that developed during the 20th century. In their remakes, the band formulates pieces with little touches of jazz or world music and by putting Hungarian folk music tunes into the foreground.
Swing meets with the rhythm of Transylvanian men’s dance, pipe songs with jazz-rock and funky rhythms. Sirató (lamenting song) finds its partner in the free accompaniment of ballads, while the Latin rhythms embrace the dynamic beating of pipe music.  www.myspace.com/gabonamusic

8 Aug. 5:30 p.m.
Announcing the results of the slambuc-making competition

8 Aug. 6:00 p.m.
CimbaliBand
Balázs Unger - cimbalom, vocals; Eszter Szita – vocals; Gellért Boda – violin; Krisztián Rodek – tambourine viola, first tambourine, derbuka, vocals; Szlobodán Wertetics – harmonica, vocals; Gergő Unger - guitar; Péter Patai – double bass

The biggest open air flea market of the region is held every year in the Western part of Transylvania at Feketetó. During the three days of throng, visitors may find everything from traditional animal fairs through village handicraft products to second hand art treasures. Romanian, Hungarian, Gypsy, Serbian, Bulgarian, German and English words intermingle, still there is something that everyone understands from the veritable Babel: the sound of music. We can meet a harmonica player from Muntenia or a Hungarian violinist, a Székely playing the tárogató, a violinist (on funnel-ended violin) from Bihar, while Serbian tunes are not rare either around here. The second album of CimbaliBand (“Feketetó”) presents this throbbing atmosphere in its unique style that is similar to the market at Feketetó : it tells the story of the past while it is still very much alive and vivid.
www.cimbaliband.hu

8 Aug. 9:00 p.m.
György Ferenczi and the Racka Jam
György Ferenczi - vocals, harmonica, violin; Ádám Apáti – mouth piano, bass guitar, vocals; Miklós Jankó – cajon, drums; Levente Kormos - guitar, vocals; Zsolt Pintér - mandolin, guitar, vocals

The blending of wine culture and top-class entertainment resulted in a fantastic cuvee.
On his acoustic album the singer and harmonica artist mixes the traditions of Hungarian folk music with his own ideas. Sometimes the songs are passionate as a red wine from Villány or smooth as an aszú from Tokaj, they can be strong like a Sopron Kékfrankos and sometimes they are sparkling as a refreshing rosé wine and soda. The songs written with a mature and unique scoring bring us the colourful “Ferenczi-style” musical atmosphere. The lyrics that go with the music and the themes of selected poems embrace the listener just as wine plays with the feelings of people. It picks them up and makes them fly, it brings intimate  moments into their quite rooms, it stirs up and lights their hearts and souls. Romance and wild rock and roll at the same time… The genie was let out of the bottle!  www.rackajam.hu

Wine tasting: from noon to midnight

9 Aug. 4:00 p.m.
Chico Manada
Ildikó Törő - vocals, László Tóth - guitar, Bertalan Hegyes – double bass, Attila Blaskovics - percussion

Latin jazz and Mediterranean evergreens – dessert  after a Sunday’s lunch.

9. Aug 09. 6:00 p.m.
Borvirág [wine flowers] band
László Kiss -  tambourine, harmonica, flute, vocals; Zoltán Langer – double bass, vocals; György Olasz -  violin, vocals; Gábor Papp -  tambourine viola, guitar, vocals; Sándor Szűcs -  tambourine, vocals

Borvirág band ensures the good atmosphere of wine festivals, wine cellars and parties by playing melodies and folk songs connected to Hungarian wines and country taverns. Our ancestors had songs about the appearance of vine, cultivation works (hoeing, pruning, harvesting grapes) as well as the pleasure of wine poured into glasses. As we find out from these songs, this noble drink is our friend in happiness and need, still we consider it important to note, or rather to sing: we have to refrain from excessive drinking.
www.bordalok.hu

9. Aug. 8:00 p.m.
Jambalaya
Zoltán Nemes –piano, vocals; András Jász – soprano saxophone, flute; Gábor Kollmann – tenor saxophone; Krisztián Szűcs – trumpet, cornet; László Varga – bass guitar; István Mezőfi – drums

Jambalaya, founded in 2005, represents the authentic New Orleans style in its music that is not simply jazz but also incorporates the musical traditions of African, European and Latin-American people living there, so it is a real and vivid Louisiana Creole mixture. Their name also tries to reflect this: jambalaya is a special dish of people living at the Mississippi estuary; a dish as important there as gulyás in Hungary. It contains many different ingredients but this is what makes it delicious. During their concert, among others, they will play songs from their new Hungarian album appearing later this year with the title “Végállomás vagy utazás” [Destination or travelling].
www.jambalaya.hu

Programmes are free