True, October is not high season in Budapest, Hungary, but there are still many things to do. And if you schedule your Budapest visit at the beginning of October, you can usually enjoy some very sunny days. In contrast, the end of October can be quite chilly – even snowy and wintry. But what are the best things to do in October? Probably one of the best programmes in October is a gastro festival at the Buda Castle Royal Palace – wonderful site, fantastic foods and drinks plus live shows. Warmly recommended.

Things to do in Budapest in October

Palinka and Sausage Festival Budapest - October things to do

• Palinka and Sausage Festival – two things the Hungarians love and usually take with themselves if abroad: palinka is an alcoholic drink and sausage needs no explanation. The Palinka and Sausage Festival is in October in chilly Budapest. Hungarian craft brewers unite to bring you home made flavours – what a pleasant thing to do in Budapest. October is when the new beers are introduced. Craft beers include several famous beer varieties made in Hungary, like the old Irish Red, the first Hungarian ’Belgian’ Beer, christened Friar Tuck, Buckwheat Lager, Bitter Honey beer, Black Sheep (a high-gravity pitch-black stout), etc.
• Craft-Beer Festival (Fozdefeszt) is an annual celebration of handmade beers – for four days you can enjoy real craft beers made in Hungary. The craft beer fest is in October when the new beers are presented. The venues are several atmospheric squares on the Pest side, including Kalvin square, Mikszath Kalman square, Szabo Ervin square (once there, do look around the magnificent Szabo Ervin Library), Lorinc pap square, Krudy street (this area is known as the Palace District, but this has nothing to do with the Buda Castle Royal Palace at all). One of the highlights of this little Budapest beer fest is the beer called ‘Korty’, which is a true Hungarian beer speciality, as the beer is fermented with another Hungarian specialty (a Hungaricum) called Tokaji Aszu (a sweet dessert wine) – so Korty must be for those who love beers on the sweet side. Needless to say, beer brewers attract other beer brewer friends, so there will be guest breweries like the Czech Pivovarsky Dum, or the Slovakian Kaltenecker’s B27 (heavy dark beer with 11% alcohol aged in Tokaji wine oak barrels). Gourmet beers from Hungary to the beer gourmand visitors in Budapest.
• World Press Photo exhibition is usually in autumn (September – October). The venues can change, e.g. Millenaris Park or in 2012 the Museum of Ethnography, just by the Hungarian Parliament. The press photos of about 25 countries are picked by an international jury, and the exhibition made of the award winning photos travels from country to country. Unfortunately, most of them are on the dark side, political turmoils, riots, etc. but there are several less stark photos of nature, sport, and life.
• Fridge Festival is not only a huge winter sports festival but a 5 day party with tons of music and vivid atmosphere in Budapest, which is getting really chilly towards late October and November, when the winter sport festival takes place in the City Park. The usual venue of Fridge Festival Budapest is the open air artificial ice rink (Mujegpalya) just by the romantic Vajdahunyad Castle.
  

  Fridge Festival Budapest - winter sports shows and parties

• Budapest Design Week is an excellent thing to see for those who love design and wish to visit Budapest in autumn. The design week is a regular event, often in September – October. Hugely popular! The Budapest Design Week has a multi-layered programme from exhibiting the works of designers in the Hungarian Design Awards, through fashion shows, tours given by art historians, presentations, conferences to inviting a star designer as a festival lecturer at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. The theme of the Budapest Design Week changes from year to year. Throughout the Budapest Design Week you can buy design items for sale at a discounted price (about 72 shops and galleries offer reductions), and participate in design gastro tours (Rozsavolgyi Csokolade and Sugar! stand out as a chocolate and sweets designer)
• Contemporary Art Festival – Cafe Budapest (former Budapest Autumn Festival). The Cafe Budapest festival is full of less mainstream performances and concerts – in less mainstream venues, like the Budapest ruin pubs. If you like more experimental, alternative and quirky things, contemporary fine arts, modern classical music, free style jazz, etc. the Cafe Budapest Contemporary Art Festivalis your thing to do in Budapest in October.
  

  Budapest Craft Beer Fest - things to do in October

• Budapest Baroque Music Festival: the Budapest Baroque Music Festival is a small scale music event, a recommended thing to do in Budapest if you love baroque music from Bach, Purcell, Vivaldi, Pachelbel or Handel, to mention but a few of the most favoured at this classical music festival, which takes place in a baroque St Michael Church in the city centre (Belvarosi Szent Mihaly templom). The entrance fee to the Budapest Baroque Music Festival is very reasonable. The 2 week long baroque fest is scheduled for September – October.
• Budapest Marathon: Budapest Marathon held in October in Budapest is a runners’ sports event, and must be one of the most scenic marathons in the world. Its popularity is growing each year.
• Top Budapest Event Calendar / Event Guide to the current October events in Budapest, Hungary: click to see the currently highlighted events in Budapest in October this year.