Horses for Heroes'

Hungarians, especially in Budapest, seem to have an obsession for audience 'events'. There is hardly a weekend, or sometimes full week, without one.

Of course, this is good for tourism, yet many occasions cater as much for Hungarians themselves. Fortunately, Hungarians are excellent at organising such events, and often on a very grand scale.

National Day, August 20, produced events all over the city, with a focus on the water and air display on and over the Danube, and a crowd-enthusing evening firework display.

One weekend ago, Buda Castle saw the culmination of several days of the International Wine (and food) Festival, which has now reached its twentieth year.

And this past weekend brought the turn of an especially cultural specific event – a horse racing pageant in Heroes' Square named The National Gallop.

Three days of public heats elsewhere in the city climaxed in an extravaganza in Budapest's largest square – sand and sawdust strewn for the occasion – with associated attractions stretching for nearly a mile.

Andrássy Avenue – the long, straight approach from city centre to Heroes' Square – turned into a mecca for most of its length for stalls and displays covering every kind of marketing opportunity, from high performance vehicles to traditional crafts, with plenty of participatory action for children.

Of The National Gallop itself, one can be in no doubt of its national flavour. Enormous posters proudly display moustachiod Hussars in colourful 19th century uniforms. Trotting, galloping and sabre-drawn, charging Hussars feature throughout the programme. And, as well as show jumping, dressage, carriages and traps, polo and racing, we were also presented with re-creations of the Magyar settlers staking their Hungarian claim and battle scenes from the 1848 revolution.

Incidentally, it may be little known that the original huszár –a light-cavalryman– was first created in the 15th century by the Hungarian King Mátyás (Matthias). Only after four centuries of offensive and defensive huszár valour did this successful concept finally catch on with most of Europe's other armies.

The organisers of the now annual National Gallop describe it as not only presenting horse racing tradition and history, but also engendering Hungarian "faith, strength and cohesion" from a living past. "Every nation has an indisputable right to basic cultural and moral demands," they say, and through these "there is power which can be used at any time to recover a sense of belonging".

Since I feel obliged to take an objective view, I sometimes wonder if the profusion of public spectacles, such as this one, in Budapest – in receipt of official encouragement no doubt – aren't reflecting a 'bread and circuses' relationship with the population.

I expect, however, this is just too cynical a view. After all, what better place than a beautiful city like Budapest to hold almost any kind of event. The fact they keep the Budapesti happy, the tourists happy and me happy as well, is surely justification enough to consider Budapest as one of Europe's finest events capitals.

By the way, the winner of the National Gallop Finals 2011 was Pearl Molnar from Baja region. The only female in the race, she received a rapturous reception on the winner's stand and stood with tears in her eyes as the national anthem played – totally overcome with pride and emotion.