The Kolorado Festival is like no other. Not only because it physically takes you out of the urban rush, but also because it spiritually transports you to an alternative reality. When I think of the Kolorado, I don’t think of an event, but of a feeling: the smell of summer dust, the company chilling in the shade during the day, the techno in the trees at night, the faces shimmering in the flashlight, and the surprising familiarity of a stranger’s smile.
The location alone is fabulous. Just over the border from Budapest, in the woods of Nagykovácsi, where visitors arrive not by car but by a special bus odyssey. The journey is part of the experience: a kind of departure from the ordinary. By the time you get down the hillside and see the festival area, you know you’ve entered a different world.
And that world is colourful, noisy, dreamy. At Colorado, it’s not the mainstream performers who rule, but the joy of discovery. It’s where I first heard music that would stay with me for months, and it’s also where I first really lost track of time during a concert that started at the crack of dawn. Electronic music is in almost every corner, but you can also come across experimental indie, spoken word, live performance or dance theatre. It’s a creative melting pot.
But Colorado is not just music. Here you can talk about social issues from morning till night, watch exhibitions, listen to slams, drink a beer in a hammock until sunset, or even completely relax during a yoga class. No rush, no need to rush. And no one is judging you.
The audience: typical of the Budapest youth who no longer ask for the obligatory rounds. Students, artists, creative professionals, groups of friends who like to step out of their comfort zone. The dress code? It’s as if they’ve dressed up in a vintage shop or sewn their own set – it doesn’t matter. The point is to be yourself.
The Colorado is a place where the city doesn’t disappear – it just transforms. Because the conversations, the perspectives, the moods you take with you here, they come back to Budapest with you. You’ll just look at the walls of the seventh district, the clubs, the summer evenings, a little differently.
