Every summer Hungary’s contemporary art world moves its base to Tihany for a little while. The area surrounding the ferry stop becomes a focal point of culture, and, like a super strong magnet, attracts the freshest, most relevant faces of visual artists, design, theatre, literature and music to join in a casual and fun “garden party”.

The Balaton Express pop-up exhibition that has been running for more than a month at Mono Art & Design gallery, the Budapest headquarters of the festival organizers, has enthusiastically heralded this year’s Artplacc – its Balaton themed artworks are perfect warm-up pieces for the 22-26 July period.

We don’t exactly know what the secret is, maybe it’s the lavender-infused Balaton air, the outdoor venues or summer itself, but there’s a truly unique atmosphere here that allows artists, more serious and amateur art fans to mix and have fun without feeling uncomfortable.

This year, GALÉRIAplacc will once again be the favourite venue of those interested in visual arts: in a 400-m2 tent artworks by such visionaries will be on display (and available for purchase) as Viktória Hitka, Áron Kútvölgyi-Szabó or Sec.Co & Fresh K.O., to mention but a few of the featured artists. With diverse pieces, new techniques and social issues, the exhibition is reflective of the whole festival’s ars poetica. Embedded in Miklós Kiss’ special installation, also presented at Balaton Express, DESIGNplacc will premier at this year’s event, comprising everything from the beautiful ceramics of Kezemura to outstanding minimalist fashion brand NUBU.

You can wander through the exhibition on your own, marvelling at the displayed works of art, but you can also join English and Hungarian guided tours held every day to understand the context behind the pieces. If, however, you are looking for a more active way of immersing yourself in culture, you can participate in MONGE’s concrete workshop or experience what it feels like to be an artist through a board game. Literature will also be housed in this tent where you can find out about the work of Slovakian Peter Balko, and get a taste of what the special guests of next year’s book festival have in store.

If we could start again, we would definitely appreciate afternoon naps more, and we would hang out at the ARTplacc kids tent all day, soaking up culture through playful introductory activities without even noticing it.

After dark, visitors will be able to choose from two ways to spend the evening. On more chilled out nights you can enjoy the trendiest flicks of the ever more professional Hungarian film industry, namely For Some Inexplicable Reason and Liza, the Fox-Fairy, in an outdoor cinema setting, and check out films by up-and-coming talents from the programme of the Friss Hús Short Film Festival. 20,000 Days on Earth, depicting the life of Nick Cave, will be the star movie of the event.