SPARK cool•tour•house

2010

In 2010, on the site of the former SPARK cinema, I built a new kind of cultural centre, which was funded by the National Development Agency's New Hungary Development Plan "Cultural Attraction with Tourist Attractiveness". In 2010, we started the reconstruction and the opening of the three months of trial operation on 11 February 2011.

The SPARK cool-tour-house - Budapest's new cultural entertainment centre - was opened in February 2011 and officially went up in flames.

In our short few months of operation, we have had 12 theatre performances in our repertoire - including 6 original shows - 2 new shows and more than 30 concerts.
I finished running SPARK on 31 May 2011.

Our performances have included Eszter Csákányi, Péter Scherer, László Katona, Kati Takáts, Sándor Terhes, but we have also had guest performances by Judit Hernádi, Andrea Fullajtár and Béla Mészáros, Károly Hajduk, Vera Sipos; and our repertoire has also included productions by István Tasnádi, Vilmos Vajdai, Réka Pelsőczy, Sándor Zsótér, Lehel Kovács, Viktória Jaross and Andor Lukáts (Paravarieté - ETCHNO - Chicago - MM - Piccadilly Circus - The Soldier's Tale)

We had concerts by two supergroups such as Quimby and Kiscsillag, and we launched the HungaROCKum series, inviting the great elders of the Hungarian pop-rock scene: in February and March, Charlie and Rózsi Demjén were our guests.

A new interactive music stand-up show was launched with András Hajós, and the best big band in Hungary, led by Kornél Fekete-Kovács, performed live, Győző Szabó, Ervin Nagy, Krisztián Kolovratnik, Tamás Keresztes and Csaba Debreczeny in our own production MACHOW SWING, Sándor Fábry was the host presenter for our opening.

György Ferenczi and the Rackajam, the Szabó Balázs Band, and Maszkura with the Cricket Band, the Neo held a record launch; Péter Novák, Péter Müller Sziámi, Pista Busa and Akkezdet Phiai, BackIIBlack, the Kerekes Band, the Bootsi Quartet performed; and Eszter Takács and Mantra Porno, Bëlga and Kistehén, BeshOdrom, and BRAINDOGS Tom Waits musical theatre evening with two foreign performers and - among others - Frenk, Tibi Kiss and Líviusz Varga.

And last but not least, the weekend DJ parties were hosted by several foreign stars (Ilario Alicante, Joey Negro, Lee Burridge), but also by Depeche Mode founder Alan Wilder, the English Alice Russell, and many Hungarian DJ stars from Palotai to Superman, and Netsky and B-Complex drum & bass parties have been held twice at SPARK, as well as the Balkan Party, Indiafest and Balkan Beats parties.