For almost a generation now, the night of June 23 is no longer just the celebration of the summer solstice, the eve of midsummer night, which Shakespeare filled with a spell-binding love story in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This will be the 16th year when the doors of the museums open at night, while the almost half a million sleepless revellers have a bewildering choice of almost one thousand events.

The events of the Night of the Museums have a number of continuing and nascent traditions. One of them is that every year the State Secretariat for Culture chooses a central topic and a featured city.

This year’s central topic is linked to the Year of the Families. What binds us: Family and Culture – the title is meant to evoke a wide range of values, secrets awaiting discovery and to inspire the participating institutions. From a historical perspective, every museum has one or more prominent families around whose role and importance the museum itself revolves. On the other hand, the family is a unit that a museum can address: grandparents will teach their grandchildren, parents their children to not only look but also see.

This year’s featured city is Pécs, the very one that was the European Capital of Culture. In much the same way as during that year the whole Europe could see the effervescence of the city, it can now again become the focus of attention with a multitude of colourful events.

Every year the event also has a face: this year it is that of musician Gergő Oláh, who has been embroiled in a series of museum adventures over the past two months. The movie of his adventures is available on https://www.facebook.com/muzeumokejszakaja/. 

Dear museum-goers! National and local public transport will continue to assist you this year in facilitating your travels to the various locations: the chartered routes and special discounts are on our the event’s homepage.

On behalf of all the staff of the participating institutions I trust we will enjoy together the wonders of this special night and the community-building powers of family and culture!

Péter Fekete
State Minister for Culture