The Valley of the Arts is the oldest among the major festivals of Hungary as it was started in 1989 with the aim of promoting Kapolcs region's cultural and economic values. The first festival engaged a few hundred visitors and a dozen of performers only in a cosy, familiar, friendly atmosphere. Despite that the festival has constantly expanded, and has attracted more and more visitors over the past years, it has not lost sight of its original aim: the commitment to promoting quality, cultural values, local ties and the friendly atmosphere. Cosiness has always been maintained, while the number of visitors has come respectively up to 120-150 thousands of annually. Due to the festival’s long history, the Valley of the Arts has become and grown into a real cultural brand. Quality, value, culture, modern art, diversity - these are the buzzwords that describe the ten days long festival. This village’s sites, public areas are all show venues, the yards house workshops, or creative performances organized around or by a single artist or artistic team - providing visitors with on going program for ten days - and engaging them in these unique occasions, cultural pan-artistic, creative processes. This allows visitors to genuinely experience the festival and this experience is unique, therefore impossible to reproduce. It became a tradition that the festival offers yard-based ad hoc venues, all presenting their unique and interactive program, as the Palya-yard with its young world music singers, the Kaláka Poetry Yard with its poets, musicians that created a meeting place for families in the Valley.
