Central Europe’s biggest rock band, CityRocks, will play two major concerts in Romania and Hungary

CityRocks, Central Europe’s largest rock band, is preparing for two major concerts in 2023. The hundreds of rock musicians will first perform in the European Capital of Culture, Veszprém on June 18, followed by a Transylvanian performance in Satu Mare (Szatmárnémeti) on July 29.

Anyone can become a member of the giant orchestra if they have at least basic vocal or instrumental knowledge, but amateur and professional musicians from the region are also welcome to apply, thus supporting the musical mission of the European Capital of Culture VEB2023, which invites the production to Veszprém: “Music here happens not only for us, but with us”.

“CityRocks is always more than a party. Hundreds of musicians arrive from small children to elderly people, from factory workers to top managers. It is also completely irrelevant whether someone has equipment worth a few tens of thousands of forints or even millions. Everyone carries the essence within themselves anyway: it doesn’t matter where someone comes from, and it doesn’t matter where they will go next. But here, in a frenetic environment, we can experience how easily we can actually connect with each other. This is the miracle of live music,” said Ferenc Gajda, the main organizer, who believes that both venues are symbolic.

“Veszprém is one of the most important venues on the continent this year, as the city of queens hosts countless events as the European Capital of Culture. This cavalcade sends the same message as CityRocks: as many of us as there are, we can show common values.”

 Veszprém has held the title of UNESCO City of Music since 2019, and this year Veszprém is the European Capital of Culture together with the Bakony-Balaton region. VEB2023 EKF pays special attention to events offering the experience of playing music, so that Veszprém can become the city where proportionally the most people play music and sing, as several studies prove that cities where many people play music are happier. CityRocks is coming to Veszprém at the invitation of the VEB2023 EKF music development program, whose mission is specifically to popularize amateur music, to create a new, urban concept of music education and community music.

Satu Mare is symbolic because it lies on the other side of a border to which neighbouring peoples have historically had very different attitudes. It is not our job to resolve this tension, but if Hungarians and Romanians and even Ukrainians play music together at our event, it may set an uplifting example for everyone to look forward to the future. The real boundaries are in people. And playing music together can always open them up.”

Singers, guitarists, bass players, drummers, and keyboard players can also apply to perform. Those who are admitted to the orchestra can prepare for the two-hour concert with the help of instructional videos made by the organizers, so even less experienced musicians will be able to perform at a high level. You can apply on the www.cityrocks.eu page. Anyone who wants to be a member of the giant orchestra only needs to send a short video of their own musical production.

As we wrote before, V4 Festival to offer over 100 programmes, details HERE.