“Music is beautiful, simple and incomparable”

It has been a tradition in Tata for more than one and a half decades that locals welcome summer on the last weekend in June with the Water, Music, Flower Festival. A few years ago the Hungarian Defence Forces’ corps stationed in the city, the 25th ’György Klapka’ Infantry Brigade, and the Tatabánya recruitment office of the HDF Western Hungarian Augmentation/Recruitment Command have also joined the program, and last year the Regional Festival of Military Bands was held on the same weekend.

This year the situation was the same. On June 26, the staff of the recruitment office were awaiting visitors in their usual place, the green area in front of the Eszterházy Palace. A lot of guests turned up and asked questions about professional and contracted service in the military. Endeavouring visitors could try how it feels to rise into the air with the help of a JetFly airplane simulator. Naturally, there were many little pilots again who flew across the virtual blue sky…

The spectacular display of the special guards of the HDF Support Brigade, 32nd Budapest Guard Battalion, 2nd Company by the recruitment tent was also very successful. The armed formal demonstration of the eight soldiers attracted hundreds of visitors to the shore of the lake  rifles were flying, shots were banging, then the small team finished their program with a parade.

Following the demonstration the commander of the team, Lieutenant Tibor Urbán told honvedelem.hu that in addition to their daily duties, the guys are also preparing for the special tasks of guard of honour and give a performance two or three times a month in Hungary and abroad  with great success everywhere.

The 3rd Regional Festival of Military Bands, promoted as an integral part of the program of Water, Music, Flower Festival, started at two in the afternoon with the open-air concerts of participating garrison bands. Bands from Szentendre, Kaposvár and Tata as well as the central orchestra of the Hungarian Defence Forces gave 30-minute concerts in four famous spots: the square in front of the Eszterházy Palace, the Campanile, Kossuth Square, and Építok Park. The performers got big rounds of applause after each concert.

After their individual performances the bands participating in the festival assembled in the city centre near the Tata Castle and awaited guests with special performances and a joint concert. The army musicians were greeted by Dr. Csaba Hende. In his opening address the defence minister said: this task is unusual but also rewarding, for the Hungarian Defence Forces are the guests and at the same time, the hosts of this festival.

The minister added: Tata, the military city with a glorious past, knows the orchestra of the garrison, the HDF 25th ’György Klapka’ Infantry Brigade, because locals can often meet them in the streets and squares of the city and at state and military ceremonies.

 Besides filling the square with their music, orchestras want to fill your hearts and souls, too. Music is a beautiful and enduring, but also fragile thing, the art of the moment. It is simple and incomparable because it is always different. Even if two artists are performing the same piece. There is some great mistery, some great-great magic around when, from sheet music, the orchestra brings to life the thoughts, emotions of someone who is long gone. It is especially true in the case of military music. I do not think anybody could tell our hearts more about the defence of Komárom in 1849, than the Klapka March does, or if there is anything that could recall the triumphant hours of the freedom fight better than Erkel’s Hunyadi March can  said Csaba Hende.

The defence minister also told visitors that in the peaceful years of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy every small town with a garrison had their own brass band. Open-air concerts meant nice Saturday or Sunday afternoons, when families were strolling in the park in their best clothes. Grandfathers told their grandchildren about old times and they were listening to marches together. Back then soldiers were regarded fine ’honvéds’ (homeland defenders). Everyone respected the profession, the national cause they represented, in other words, the armed protection of the homeland.

– The new defence leadership considers it its most important task to familiarise the entire nation again with the significance of the work done in the Hungarian Defence Forces. Our aim is to achieve that the word ’honvéd’ is at least as bright as it used to be in the happy times of peace. We want to win your support because home defence, the armed protection of the homeland is still a national cause. We would like to bring back the times when garrisons were regular and welcome participants in the cultural life of cities – Csaba Hende said in his opening speech.

József Michl, the mayor of Tata emphasised in his address that the presence of the defence forces in the city means employment opportunities and security at the same time. The city of Tata could give soldiers living here a home, and on the other hand, it can also count on them in every difficult situation.

– On behalf of the mayors of concerned towns and villages, I would like to thank the Hungarian Defence Forces for what they have done for and given to the victims of the flood in recent weeks – said the mayor, who also told the guests how important the Water, Music, Flower Festival is to Tata. This was the seventeenth event and the Regional Festival of Military Bands is now also a part of it, indicating that the defence forces are an integral part of the life of Tata.

Mayor József Michl also underlined in his speech that this year Tata is celebrating that five hundred years ago, King Wladyslaw (Ulászló) II summoned the national assembly in this city. As the last hope, the king tried to ask neighbouring countries to send help to engage the Turkish. And this year’s festival is a worthy commemoration of the events that happened half a millennium ago.

The Festival of Military Bands – attended by Lt.Gen. Tibor Benkõ, Chief of Defence Staff and Brig.Gen. János Huszár, Deputy Commander, HDF Joint Forces Command – started with the performance of the Royal Hungarian Heritage Association, who were parading in 1848 uniforms.

Following their demonstration that also included a scene from a battle the guests could watch the formal display of participating bands. Their spectacular performances that often included show elements were very successful, of course.

The 3rd Regional Festival of Military Bands ended with a joint concert. The performance of the four bands, which included popular and well-known tunes, was rewarded by the audience with a big round of applause.

But in addition to military bands, there were also a number of other interesting things to see on Saturday at the Water, Music, Flower Festival in Tata, for example craftsmen and the concerts of popular bands. And eyes were kept on the sky above Tata Lake for long minutes during the air show of Zoltán Veres, the European aerobatic champion.