Additionally, several festivals included in the Nagyon Balaton scheme are to receive a combined 337 million forints (EUR 1.1m), he said.

Hungary’s festivals generate around 10-12% of international tourism, resulting in an annual 100 billion forints (EUR 318m) revenues in the economy and jobs for locals, Rétvári said.

Large festivals face serious competition internationally, so the government decided last year to reduce the VAT on festival tickets from 27% to 18%, he added.

He said state support for the Budapest Spring Festival and CAFe Budapest is to increase to 1.9 billion forints (EUR 6m) and the National Cultural Fund of Hungary is distributing a total of 300 million forints (EUR 953,000) to support cultural and gastronomic festivals that attract a large number of tourists.

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