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Once the health emergency has been lifted, the domestic tourism started to rebound. This pattern can be seen in the case of the Great Reformed Church in Debrecen, now visited by nearly 5,000 visitors since the reopening. 

The church has developed several novel programs to make the visitor experience even more complete this summer.

Watching stars has been a favorite pastime since ancient times. In the middle of summer, the Milky Way emerges above our heads, and we can see the night sky more clearly including the phenomenon of shooting stars.

Meteor swarms can appear in the night sky for several weeks from the end of July until the end of August and are a sight to behold. The most suitable places for observing meteors and stars are in locations that are “sky parks” of which there are several in Hungary. These locations are free from obstacles and light pollution.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, major music events and festivals are being canceled one after another, right across the country.  Unfortunately, this now includes Campus Eleven.

Previously, the Campus Festival 2020 was canceled, but the organizers did their best to provide an alternative large scale event series to be held towards the end of the summer. The event named “Campus Eleven” was planned to hold over 11 featured nights with popular artists. 

The Debrecen Flower Carnival program will be enriched with light exhibitions, light games, and a children’s festival. Visitors will be able to see King St. Stephen walking into Dósa Nádor Square.

In recent years, as a result of cultural collaborations, the Night of Lights and the Night of the Classics have become the two popular events of the Flower Carnival in Debrecen. The Nights of Lights and the Night of the Classics have been an integral part of the carnival week for years and will continue to be so this year.

One of the best summer evening programs is the evening walk at the Debrecen Zoo. The evening was traditionally held on the last Friday in August. Now, weekly evening walks will continue as a prelude to the upcoming Night at the Zoo at the end of August (28th August).

Participants of the Night Walk program can discover the thousands of secrets of the ZOO and gain a glimpse into the unknown, evening life of the animals. With the help of caregivers, they can get to know the most special animals, among other things. 

The Hortobágy National Park was announced as a Silver Tier International Dark Sky Park in 2011 but the park was already recognized internationally as a World Heritage site (since 1973), a Ramsar site, and a Biosphere Reserve, with the addition of the IDSP award, places Hortobágy National Park in a league of its own in Hungary and more widely in Europe.

The National Park is fantastic, not only for bird watching and for the areas’ unique environment but also and consequently, for stargazing, this is partly because the area is mostly uninhabited by humans and the landscape is completely flat, unobscured by powerlines, trees or light pollution. The completely flat horizon allows for an almost complete dome of the night sky. 

Debrecen has a great tradition of science education and botany. Péter Méliusz Juhász wrote the first Hungarian botanical book here, while Sámuel Diószegi and Mihály Fazekas, the writer of the famous Hungarian Herb Book (1807) created the first Herb Garden. 

The predecessor of the current garden was a garden established on the site of the Déri Museum – formerly known as Pap Lake – the area of ​​which was designated in 1807 by the then council of the city of Debrecen. The garden was under the supervision of the Reformed College and served for science education from 1844 to 1922. 

Debrecen and its only U.S. based sister city, New Brunswick – New Jersey, and will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their twinning in 2020 with a photo exhibition.

The central library of Méliusz will host a photo exhibition compiled by Viktor Löki, founder of the Streets of Debrecen project. The exhibition is of some of the best moments caught on camera during his stay in New Brunswick.

The worldwide increase in Coronavirus cases has also affected Hajdú-Bihar county. In response to this increasing trend, the following action is being taken.

The city of Debrecen continues to give priority to the emergency situation, allocating serious resources for prevention. Debrecen has received a significant amount of protective gear including 100,000 disposable masks, more than 9,000 FFP masks,  and more than 9,000 washable textile masks now in stock. In addition, more than 2,000 liters of disinfection equipment is available to city institutions.

Although the usual Flower Festival parade will be missed, those interested can still see the spectacular flower compositions on August 20th. 

Sándor Pikó, an artist from Debrecen, is contributing three compositions this year and the works are already under development. According to him, this year’s works have a soul.

Although the artist was also in quarantine voluntary during the spring, he worked on the plans continuously. This year, the companies understood that the sooner they start negotiations, the sooner they can sow the flower seeds, the more certain that the compositions planned could be realized, the artist said in his latest interview. 

Debrecen Zoo has announced yet more endangered animals, a North Chinese leopard, and the birth of a reticulated giraffe, the rarest of giraffe species.

The charismatic male Chinese Leopard arrived on June 24, originating from Ree Park Safari, Denmark, and has been settling in since, and is a result of Debrecen Zoo’s participation in the European Endangered Species Program (EAZA EEP). 

Born in autumn 2018, the mighty big cat named Coolio has been gradually getting familiar with his new environment at Debrecen Zoo, and now you can check him out in his enclosure during regular opening hours or during Evening Walks with the Zoo Keepers on Friday nights.

This year, the Beach Night will be held on July 25, which has been joined by several spas nationwide. Of course, this year’s program should not miss the Aquaticum Debrecen Strand which awaits those interested with extended opening hours and colorful programs.

“The Debrecen Photo Workshop was founded at the beginning of 1998 from the former members of the Debrecen Photo Club. Since then, the Workshops membership has grown steadily. They are organizationally independent, rather a group of friends, and do not charge a membership fee.

With the name choice “Photo Workshop”, they wanted to emphasize that they expect some activity from their members, because what kind of workshop is it where people just sit and do no work? It was for this reason that they decided not to use the word “club” because it is more associated with appearances, attending gatherings, listening to speakers, and providing programs to the leader, rather than doing something creative. 

An international traveling exhibition arrived in Debrecen, the exhibition reflects back on the repression of the communist period. The exhibition was organized on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the change of regime, entitled “30 Years Free” and was first shown in Brussels last November.

The exhibition presents in chronological order the events that led to the change of regime in Hungary, from oppression of the communist dictatorship to freedom. The 13-panel exhibition also brings to life the 1989-90 turn with photographs and quotes.