UH Fest – Ultrasound in english – is dedicated to adventurous modern music in Hungary.
Since 2001 we have staged more than 450 performances during 7 festivals and a number of one-off events. Due to our decade-long activity and the scope of our events (both in terms of number of acts and stylistic variety) UH Fest became a point of reference.
We have been putting special emphasis on presenting unconventional approaches towards music and pinpointing individual national scenes, which are — more often than not — left uncovered by the domestic media and bypassed by the organisers of large-scale festivals.
Not focusing on genres is a principle that reflects in our overall activity and in the actual programming of our events. Any given member of our audience is likely to hear music s/he did not “intend to”; or from another point of view: explore something new. It is our deliberate strategy to juxtapose artists not just from different genres, but also with different approaches and moods. At our festivals the audience can hear a funny, joyous or even ecstatic performance next to a more “difficult” or abrasive show; we juxtapose the cerebral with the visceral, the intimate with the abstract, etc. We are confident that such exploration, inter-cultural communication (let it be between national cultures and/or subcultures) is a fertile ground for creative ideas, and a source of a new kind of joy.
The week long programme features Hungarian and interational artists like Monika Werkstatt with Gudrun Gut, Barbara Morgenstern, Sonae & Danielle De Picciotto, Rosinflux, Stefan Fraunberger, Gosheven, Bulk, Landing Venus, Saturn and the Sun, Saffiyúck, Croatian Amor, Black Zone Myth Chant, Kassel Jaeger, Eric Holm, Nagy Ákos, Tara Transitoryaka One Man Nation, Ron Morelli, SØS Gunver Ryberg, Felix Kubin, Maoupa Mazzocchetti, The Automatics Group, Andrea Belfi, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Okkyung Lee, My Cat is an Alien, Jung an Tagen, Don’t DJ, Apeiron Crew
This comment of UH made about founding and sponsors on their website/ festival booklet gives a hint about the difficult cultural and political situation in Hungary at the moment:
UH Fest is organised by our registered non-profit organisation, Ultrasound Foundation. To raise consciousness and express solidarity, this year during the festival campaign the names of the presented artists on some posters are covered by the Hungarian text: Foreign-funded Festival.
This reflects on a newly adopted Hungarian law that requires NGOs which receive foreign support in excess of 22 500 Euros to register as “Foreign-funded Organisation”. According to the law, that alone makes the funding from the European Union suspicious because it comes from the EU without the possibility for the Hungarian government to choose the funded NGOs or to interfere. Since all Hungarian NGOs already published their detailed, annual financial reports, this new law brings nothing new to the table. Its sole purpose is to label certain NGOs as foreign agents, enemies of the nation in the eye of the general public.
As part of the SHAPE platform with 15 other European festivals UH Fest should be labeled as “foreign-funded” according to the new law. This new act, besides being an unhealthy example for other countries, creates a chilling effect on self-organised active citizens and is against what we have embraced and promoted throughout our almost two-decade activity.
More infos:
