“This year, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of planting the seeds of the ballroom culture we know today in Budapest. Let’s bring the spirit of the iconic film Paris Is Burning to Budapest and set the capital ablaze with it!” (Anybody Walking)

Schedule:
18:00 – Kristóf Kelemen & Attila Lestyán: Vogue and Emancipation – performative introduction – Main Hall
18:30 – Anybody Walking: Budapest Is Burning – ballroom – Main Hall

The evening starts with a performative introduction by Kristóf Kelemen and Attila Lestyán, who will offer insight into the history and workings of the Hungarian ballroom scene, with the active participation of members of the community.

Then we dive into the ballroom event: you’ll see performances by members of the local and international ballroom community competing for grand prizes across different categories. You can expect some of the more well-known categories such as vogue fem, runway, realness, and face—we’ll be announcing the full line-up of the event soon! The performances will be judged by a three-member international jury, who will also introduce themselves to the community and the audience with short performances of their own.

Ballroom was born in the underground nightlife of Harlem, New York in the 1960-70s as an answer to racism and transphobia against black and latinx transwomen. In the 21st century it spread to different parts of the world, including Europe and it gives an opportunity for people of colour and LGBTQ+ people to create communities, stand up together and celebrate our identities.

Paris Is Burning is a documentary (1990, dir. Jennie Livingston) that presents the golden age of the New York ballroom scene in the second half of the 1980s, from the influential ‘houses’ of the time through the competitions held across the city to the everyday lives of participants and their struggles against violence, poverty, and discrimination, in which houses served as surrogate families for young ball-walkers.