Campus Festival is one of the country’s biggest popular music festivals. The open-air music festival takes place in July and features more than 200 concerts and DJ performances in 19 venues, as well as a wide range of other events every year. In addition to Hungarian bands, international artists such as Dutch DJ Tiesto, Norwegian singer Aurora, Swedish pop diva Zara Larsson and British duo Chase & Status have also performed at the event.  For more information, visit the website here.

Debrecen Drive is the largest automotive event in the region, where participants not only get to touch the vehicles, but also enjoy serious demonstrations and other activities. There are usually 150-200 show cars from nearly 30 brands, many of which are not even in the showrooms. Visitors are usually also able to see premium classics and ‘top of the range’ sports cars, as well as power and work machines; unique trucks; logistics robots; and military vehicles. For more information, visit the website here.

During the Debrecen Flower Festival in August, more than a hundred local and international beers, ales and craft beers will be served in the shade of the trees of the Great Forest, in front of the Great Forest Open Air Stage. For more information, visit the website here.

Held for the first time in 2010, Zamat Festival offers visitors to opportunity to taste the culinary specialties of the most famous restaurants in Debrecen and the most delicious palinkas in the country. The uplifting atmosphere of the festival is provided by the most popular Hungarian bands and performers. For more information, visit the website here.

The oldest continuous annual jazz festival (held since 1972), the Debrecen Jazz Days, and the most popular wine festival of the Northern Great Plains, the Debrecen Wine Carnival, paired up in 2015 to offer a complex experience for jazz and wine lovers featuring live jazz bands and top-ranked Hungarian family wineries. The festival is held in the heart of the Great Forest and is a highly popular event in the city’s cultural life. For more information, visit the website here. 

In addition to classical music, jazz, and pop concerts, even performers experimenting with multiple genres are introduced to the audience. The theatrical repertoire also includes some dance performances. Fine art is brought closer to the visitors by the annual Debrecen Spring Exhibition.

The festival, held for the first time in 2017, pays tribute to the Debrecen-born world-renowned novelist of the 20th century, Magda Szabó, who has publications in 42 countries and in over 30 languages. Some of her most famous works worldwide include Abigél (“Abigail”, 1970), Régimódi történet (“Old-fashioned story”, 1977), Az ajtó (“The door”, 1987) and Für Elise (2002). She received 22 Hungarian and international prizes, including the French literary prize Prix Femina Etranger for the best foreign novel in 2003. In the programme series offered as part of MagdaFest, theatre, music, fine arts, dance and film all play an important role. Some of the productions are in English. The festival focuses primarily on showing the fate of women, and thus, it showcases works created predominantly by female artists.

Held in the springtime in the Csokonai National Theatre, the annual festival showcases theatrical dramas and performances created by contemporary artists. Even though most artists are from Hungary, the festival also hosts productions from beyond the border and abroad. Therefore, some of the performances are in a foreign language. For more information, visit the following website.