Azahriah singing on stage during his historical triple concert show at the Ferenc Puskas Stadium, Budapest, Hungary, on May 24, 2024.
Robert Puzser – the driving force behind what is expected to be the largest concert ever held in Hungary – spent Tuesday, April 7, giving interviews at his Budapest café, which also serves as a cultural center and podcast recording studio. The former press critic and well-known Hungarian intellectual is preparing to stage, on Friday, April 10, what he has dubbed "a grand concert for the dismantling of the regime," just two days before the legislative elections scheduled for Sunday, April 12.
"Budapest has never seen anything like this," promised the tall, bearded man, expecting "several hundreds of thousands of people" to attend this event, which is designed to "encourage participation in the elections" in order to defeat nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been in power since 2010. Set to last seven hours, the concert will feature 50 of Hungary's biggest music stars, each performing one song, and is already being hailed as a historic music event.
At 51, Puzser is a long-standing critic of Orban's Fidesz party, and even ran – unsuccessfully – as an independent candidate for Budapest mayor in 2019. "Attracting people with completely free music is a good way to politicize them," said Puzser, who advocates "a counterattack of culture against politics" aimed at toppling a leader widely seen as having taken control of most of his Central European country's institutions, including those in the cultural sector.
