World of Hunting and Nature Exhibition 25 September – 14 October 2021
1 Million Visitors Expected for 2021 World Hunting Expo, says Gov’t Commissioner
The government commissioner responsible for organization of the event, Zoltán Kovács, expects one million visitors at the 2021 World Hunting Expo that Hungary will host in Budapest and four other locations next year.
At the opening ceremony of the Jagd and Hund 2020 in Dortmund, Kovács, who is also the state secretary for the government’s international communications, told state wire service MTI that the organization of the World Hunting Expo is underway and preparations are going according to schedule.
He revealed that the center of the events would be the international hunting exhibition at Budapest’s Hungexpo Fair Center. A number of other exhibitions, conferences and events will also accompany this 3-week-long exhibition. Fish, game gastronomy, and related wines will also play an important role at the events.
He claimed that thus far 6-7 billion forints (EUR 17,779,000-20,742,000) were spent for the preparations, adding that the central theme of the Budapest event would be to raise awareness on the importance of nature conservation and sustainability.
He noted that at the Dortmund event, which is Europe’s largest hunting exhibition and fair, that they continued to invite international partners, governments, and professional partners to Budapest, and will go on to do so in the upcoming similarly-themed events.
Visit the offical one with nature website https://onewithnature2021.org/en
The SCI Hungarian Chater will host several events. We hope as so many as possible of our members will attend the expo in Hungary. SCI will have a boot on the expo, it is also a great opertunity to visit Béla Hidvegi’s museum, the Festetics Castle Hunting Museum in Keszthely.
Bela HIDVEGI was born in 1936 in Nagyszénás. He left his homeland and the Keszthely Agricultural Academy, of which he was a student, in 1956. He continued his studies in England, where he graduated as a food industry engineer. He returned home in the early 1980s and donated his uniquely rich trophy collection to the Hungarian Natural History Museum.
His hunting exhibition “Trophies of Four Continents” opened in the fall of 2001 in some rooms of Festetics Castle. The growing number of trophies and the high attendance also demanded that the lifelike preparations and dioramas be presented in a much larger space than before. In 2008, the Hunting Museum was opened in a separate building, the material of which grew year by year. For the past 12 years, he has traveled the world tirelessly, enriching the collection with more special animals during his hunts.
By May 2021, he has harvested many specimens of 300 species on five continents of the world. 302 life-size specimens of his trophies (species and subspecies) can be seen in the dioramas of the Festetics Castle Hunting Museum in Keszthely.
It became increasingly clear that the museum needed to be expanded. Two new wings have been created during the expansion of the Keszthely Hunting Museum, the animals of the mountains and the rainforest are exhibited. In the central hall is the world map that illustrates Béla’s hunting trips, constantly updated. In one of the halls visitors can see Béla’s study, and in the other, his hunting rifles and field photos of the animals shot by the shown guns. In the same room you can see – on tasteful pedestals – the three biggest foreign awards, together with their explanations.
In the lobby you can admire the monumental painting (7 meters wide by 2.5 meters high) created by American wildlife painter Brian Jarvi, which shows 209 iconic creatures from Africa.
Please send us a few lines if you you plan to attend so we can cordinate some commen activities together with the SCI Hungarian Chapter.
