Balázs Hankó’s ministry is not supporting the Szeged Open Air Festival with a single forint this year

According to László Botka, this is unfair and unacceptable.

According to the decision of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, this is what the Szeged Open-Air Festival is worth in Hungary today

wrote László Botka on Facebook, also revealing the reason for the rejection: “not sufficiently well founded professionally.”

The mayor of Szeged then listed the results of the festival, held for the 95th time, in numbers:

• The trust of 80,000 spectators.
• More than 1.1 billion forints in revenue in a single year.
• The work of hundreds of artists and professionals.

“And against this stands the judgment of an anonymous decision making committee. Meanwhile, the scandals of recent times have clearly shown the criteria by which cultural billions are distributed, Szeged is excluded from support citing ‘professional shortcomings.’ This is unfair. And unacceptable,”

writes Botka, clearly referring to the growing scandal surrounding cultural funding.

He added, however, that despite this, Szeged will still organize the Open Air Festival:

“the country’s largest and most beautiful open air theatre festival, the pride of the city!”

What is the NKA scandal?

Áron Molnár was the first to speak about it after the elections, saying that under the supervision of Minister Balázs Hankó, the National Cultural Fund (NKA) secretly distributed 17 billion forints to organizations, associations, and celebrities linked to Fidesz, under the label of cultural funding.

Among others:

• Dopeman and Kis Grófo each received 5 million forints,
• the photographer of Zoltán Mága received 500 million,
• Gyula Deák Bill received 100 million,
• 17 million forints were granted for a folk-style performance of the UEFA Champions League anthem.

After the news broke, Balázs Bús resigned from his position as vice president of the NKA, while László Baán, Miklós Both, and Attila Vidnyánszky resigned from their roles on NKA committees. Former leaders of the NKA jointly expressed concern about the future of the organization.

Balázs Hankó also failed to provide reassuring answers in the ATV studio.