Debrecen4U August 26, 2025

The city supports young people in Debrecen who dream of a career in music – Interview with Deputy Mayor István Puskás

Rock school, rehearsal space, application opportunities: The city has been supporting pop music on several levels for years. Interview with Deputy Mayor István Puskás.

Dehir interviewed István Puskás about: What is it like to be young in Debrecen? And what if someone doesn’t just want to listen to music? What if they want to learn to play the guitar (sing, play the drums, etc.)? Do they want to form a band, go to a rehearsal room to practice, give concerts? What does the city offer today’s Debrecen teenagers and twenty-somethings?

What do young people who dream of a musical career in Debrecen get from the city?

The city’s deputy mayor responsible for cultural affairs receives a lot of opinions, comments, and observations not only during his term of office, but also directly from his family and friends about how young people experience being in Debrecen and what they think about what they get from the city. 

“Although in Kodály’s country, we are quite far from where the Icelanders, who are considered a “musical superpower,” (in Iceland practically everyone studies music, and later talents receive various, very serious support), it seems that the situation of young people in Debrecen is not bad. As István Puskás lists, the city offers many opportunities for those who want to dive deeper into the waves of music.

Support for pop music in Debrecen has been on several levels for years. The city adopted a music strategy in 2019, which encourages activity and joint action. It does not want to dictate, not to tell from above what should work, but it pays special attention to those who were born into the world of the internet from the start. There is a roundtable of independent experts that coordinates the city’s pop music projects. Among them are musicians, university lecturers, concert organizers, and journalists.”

As István Puskás recalls, these actors are not only inherently connected to the world of music, but they also try to embrace grassroots initiatives.

“When we talk about pop music, it is always worth adapting it to the expectations and opportunities of the given era. Music meant something different to the generations of the sixties and something different to those who were young around the time of the change of regime or just after the turn of the millennium.

It was a huge step for the music scene in Debrecen when Rocksuli was launched. Many years have passed since 1989, but the popularity of the institution remains high; generations have studied here and have left for smaller and larger stages.

Every year, several hundred students participate in the training courses of this special educational institution outside the school system.

Rocksuli helps to acquire instrumental knowledge, provides vocal and music technique training, and also has the power to create a community, as the roots of countless formations originate from here. And those who would like to continue their studies in this field can do so at an even higher level; the Institute of Popular Music of the University of Debrecen was established in November 2020, which is one of the pioneering centers of popular music higher education in Central and Eastern Europe, where the training of professional musicians takes place at a unique, university level.

The city also helps young musicians with a mobile rehearsal room: the off-season utilization of the VisitDebrecen tourist information container, i.e., the Music Box, provides a musical talent development point for young people in a different Debrecen secondary school every year. This is a real collaboration between the city’s cultural and musical actors, states the deputy mayor, as the instruments are provided by Rocksuli.

Of course, playing an instrument, forming a band, and rehearsing alone are not enough for success. You also need to reach the audience, and not only on online platforms.

The question is asked by almost every generation whether there are enough venues where you can perform concerts. In a city as big as Debrecen, perhaps it is not by chance that we feel that we need a few more clubs and smaller or larger stages, which would provide an opportunity for live music and emerging local performers.

At the same time, there are some spring days when we feel that there could be good solutions. Pécs set a good example, and the idea has also proven successful in Debrecen: the one-day Made in Debrecen Festival has been offering musicians the opportunity to meet the audience since 2022. At this time, concerts practically follow each other from morning until late at night, in parallel, at several venues at the same time. This year, the festival had nearly 200 performers, with amateurs and professionals getting 20 minutes on stage and foreign bands also arrived; Brno from the Czech Republic was our guest.

Made in Debrecen also serves as a bit of a wake-up call every year by showing how good it would be if an increasing number of city entertainment venues also functioned as concert venues. Of course, the municipality does not have to take care of this, but the fact that the city supports both Rocksulit and this festival is still important. Like Campus, it is a great opportunity for many small and large local teams to be part of an event of this level; the organizers bring a lot of local music to the festival every year.”

Turning back to how the municipality can help young people, István Puskás mentions the Music Support Program, by which more than 80 music projects have been supported since 2021. He says that this is a gap-filling initiative in Debrecen’s music life and provides an important basis for amateur, young musicians, including the creation of quality studio recordings and videos.

The deputy mayor also points out important opportunities such as the Techno Lab. “You can write, create, and play music not only with guitar and drums; there is also a huge imagination in the digital/electronic music world. Partners such as the German Cultural Forum, Magenta Kraft, Unexpected Frequencies, and Budapest’s Technokunst are participating in this project. In addition to performances by local and international DJs, the program also offers workshops and conferences that help young creators develop and also deals with various areas of technology-based culture.”

István Puskás also outlines  DEAL (Debrecen Art Lab), “Collaboration and connection are also typical of Debrecen Art Lab For example, the Méliusz Library Live Session, which offers live performance opportunities to bands in the library’s Music Department.” In addition, as he says, “DEAL also embraces and supports projects, programs, and activities implemented through the self-organization of high school students. Besides collaboration, a very important keyword is activity and initiative, which is also the strength of the civil sphere. “Invent and do it, and don’t wait for others to solve it for you. Good examples of this are the June Jam, the Fall Fest, and the Summer Session; these events featuring several performers were dreamed up and brought together by high school students.

It is clear that there is a long road from dreams to smaller and larger stages to success. The municipality uses its own resources to support young people in several areas and also pays attention to ensuring that entertainment is safe. In the spirit of responsible entertainment, Debrecen has been supporting the Moonshine–Rolling-Room Party Assistance Service for years, which has been present in downtown nightlife for 18 years. They use playful, creative tools to build relationships with young people who would otherwise be difficult to reach. In addition, they organize the Passionate June Festival (Szenvedélyes Juniális) every year, which is an awareness-raising event and demonstrates the power of community cooperation in the field of drug prevention.”

Source and photo credit:dehir.hu