We attended the hunting world expo in Budapest – Photo gallery
The One with Nature – World of Hunting and Nature Exhibition started on September 25 in Budapest and will be open until October 14. Daily News Hungary was there already on the first day so that we could report about the exhibition.
- read this article in Hungarian: Ott voltunk a vadászati világkiállÃtás nyitónapján, érdekes tapasztalatokat gyűjtöttünk – képgaléria
The exhibition is much more about hunting than presenting some sort of human-nature cohabitation. Therefore, only those will find the expo interesting who are interested in hunting.
As we reported before, the expo cost 67 billion HUF (EUR 191.4 million). The choice of its venue (Hungexpo) was perfect even though it was obligatory at the same time since there is no other place in Budapest where it would have been enough space. Hungexpo is the most modern congress centre of Hungary, thanks to its latest revamp. As a result,
despite the multitude of visitors, nobody could feel that the crowd was unbearable.
At the expo’s entrance, there is a magnificent gate made of antlers. That provided a hot topic for Hungarian domestic politics in the last few months. Made of 10 tonnes of fallen antler and 240 million HUF, its height is 16.5 metres, while it spans 20 metres long and wide. The opposition said that the government should have spent the cost of it on other projects because it only angered the people expecting financial help from the government after the crisis instead of such gates. Even so, the gate was completed, and it looks like this now:
There was no crowd on the first day, and everything went smoothly. You can buy a ticket both online or at the entrance. A daily ticket costs 2,700 HUF (EUR 7.5), while a family ticket or a season ticket is less per capita.
In the D pavilion, right after the entrance, there is the “Fish, Water, People” exhibition, where the collections of the Hungarian national parks await visitors. The next one is the H pavilion, where you can find the Hungarian Central Exhibition.
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That is probably the most spectacular part of the expo
with famous Hungarian hunters on the sides, and you can watch documentary movies in the side rooms. In the centre, there are more than one hundred stuffed wild animals.
Moreover, one can marvel at some original pieces of the Seuso treasure and certified copies of the gold treasure of Nagyszentmiklós. On the opposite corner of the pavilion, there are photos and videos of the 1971 world hunting expo organised by Hungary.
In the G and F pavilions, you can find some installations of traditional hunting, the hall of trophies, the 12th Open European Taxidermia Championships and the “Hunting in the 19th century” exhibition.
In the buffets, game meat is in focus.
There are special menus including deer, wild boar, pheasant served in hamburgers, stews or pörkölt.
The biggest pavilion is the International Hall, where the different countries exhibited their hunting options. Some of them did so in hundreds of square metres. Unfortunately, nobody came from West Europe, but there are African countries and even Kuwait from Asia. Members of the Turkic countries are also there, including Turkey, which has a separate exhibition site.
You can learn a lot by simply talking to the people from these countries.
The world hunting expo is open until October 4 in the Hungexpo,
but there are several other related events everywhere in Budapest.
On Saturday, for example, there was an equestrian performance in Kincsem Park. As part of the expo, the Hungarian government renewed some buildings, like the hunting castle of Bodajk.
Interestingly, animal protection organisations demonstrated at the entrance of the expo.
For example, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wanted to raise awareness on the unethical use of animals. They would like to persuade the partakers that hunting serves neither the interests of the people nor the wild animals. The Anima group said it was scandalous that animal protection organisations cannot pay their bills, while hundreds of times more of that sum are spent on a hunting exhibition.
All in all, if somebody likes hunting, nature, stuffed animals and weapons, they should visit the event. You should also go if you want an introduction to the world of hunting, as well.
And it only cost the Hungarian tax payer 191,000,000 euro. From what it looks like some of the politicians responsible for that bullssh*t ended up with most of this money in their pockets.