It’s just after 11AM on day two of Budapest Ritmo, and the House of Music — that undulating, gold-perforated landmark tucked inside the Hungarian capital’s City Park — is already humming. Upstairs, a panel on cross-border collaboration is winding down; across the courtyard, artists are arriving, chatting, and hanging around ahead of afternoon showcase soundchecks. Szilvia Bellay, Director of Operations at Hangvető — the Budapest-based organisation behind Ritmo, focused on world music curation, production, and cultural programming — is checking her phone, solving three problems at once, and somehow making time to sit on the terrace and talk.
The evening before, she was shuttling Fatoumata Diawara to and from the opening concert stage in City Park, driving her own car. “That’s another character I can add to my CV,” she jokes, casually blending high-level coordination with low-key artist transport like it’s all part of the same ride.
Bellay’s route into music wasn’t typical. A decade ago, she left a project manager role in online media to co-produce WOMEX 2015 in Budapest — a sharp career swerve that opened up a whole new ecosystem. Since then, she’s helped steer Hangvető through multiple reinventions, shifting from international event host to year-round cultural engine, working across festivals, film, European partnerships, long-term strategy and much more.
What follows is a conversation about how you build something that lasts, not just once a year, but across seasons, cities and generations. Bellay talks through the evolution of Ritmo, the shifting habits of European audiences, and why creating space for others to shine has always been central to her approach. It’s a story about structure as much as spontaneity, and how to keep a festival moving forward, even when you’re occasionally behind the wheel.
In 2014, with WOMEX heading to Budapest, Hangvető — then a small, driven team — had taken on the challenge of hosting. Balázs Weyer, ethnomusicologist and founding curator of the cultural organisation and label, was shaping the event and expanding Hangvető’s international work. Having worked with Bellay earlier in Hungarian media, he recognised her expertise as crucial for managing the scale and complexity of the project. That’s why he called her: “There’s this big thing happening. It’s called WOMEX. I think you’re going to like this.”
Bellay didn’t need much convincing. “I was working for almost 10 years for a huge Hungarian online outlet, there were big changes happening at the time, and I felt I needed to leave,” she recalls. “Balázs told me there’s this big thing happening… I said, okay, but I don’t know anything about how to organise events.” Weyer didn’t blink. “You’re a project manager, and a really good one. I think you’re going to like this.” She jumped in. Together, they brought experienced producers on board, and the project took off.
WOMEX 2015 turned into a landmark moment for both the city and the organisation.
Bellay hadn’t entered the project as a world music devotee. “I mean, when I was small I dreamt of producing soundtracks for films and such, but I wasn’t in the music business, and I wasn’t into world music at all. It wasn’t really my scene.” But she stayed, and started building something of her own.
As the event wrapped, Bellay sensed something had shifted. “At the end of WOMEX, we had this feeling: a lot of us on the team were kind of outsiders to the music industry, but that meant we brought new ideas, rather than just falling into the usual reflexes. We really wanted to make WOMEX in Budapest something memorable. And I think we managed. Even now, when I go to WOMEX or other showcases in Europe or elsewhere, people come up to me and say, ‘Oh wow, the 2015 Budapest WOMEX, the small boat, everything.’ And we’re like, okay, I think we created something that stuck with people.”
That “small boat” is Club A38, a Ukrainian cargo ship moored on the Danube, reimagined as a floating venue blending restaurant, concert hall, cultural space and bar. It became one of the festival’s most unexpected settings, and one that helped give the Budapest edition its distinct character.
After that WOMEX, the idea for Ritmo began to take shape. “We felt there was a gap. We were surprised by the success of WOMEX and realised there was a need in the public. But we also realised the audience didn’t necessarily know that themselves yet. We knew we’d need to kind of educate our audience. Now, 10 years later, we have two days of sold-out concerts and people asking what happened. And I say — 10 years happened.”
The approach was long-term and grounded. “It’s all about building step by step, building your audience, and producing content. Not just ads or promotion. You have to make podcasts, films, you have to talk to your audience, tell stories about your artists. I think that’s what’s made Ritmo successful.”
But for Bellay, this wasn’t education in the traditional sense. “It’s kind of a calling, yes, but I wouldn’t call it ‘education.’ When I hear that word, I think of a classroom with a teacher and students. I think it’s more like we educate each other, together with the audience. They give us feedback, and we try to listen. It’s more an exchange of ideas, of feelings and stories told through music.”
That ethos shaped the broader direction of Ritmo. Beyond concerts and showcases, the team began experimenting with new formats: podcasts, storytelling, and eventually film. “Of course there were bumps in the road. Like every event in the past 10 years, we had COVID, which turned everything upside down. That’s when we started producing films. And now we have the Film Days.”
Held at Toldi — one of Budapest’s best-known cinemas — Ritmo Film Days has since become a core part of the programme. “Yes, at Toldi — a really well-known cinema in Budapest. We screen documentaries about music, we produce music films, and we’re also trying to learn more about the film industry in the process. It’s an ongoing evolution. You never stop, you always try something new. Sometimes you fail, and then you try something else. But none of it would be possible without the partners we’ve had, or the people who’ve worked on the festival.”
Some of those partners have been there from the very beginning. “There’s one person who was there at the start — she now leads Bartók Spring International Arts Week, which is a major international event. Janina Szomolányi was there from the beginning, and she supported us all the way. Whatever idea we pitched — whether it was producing films or launching a festival — she was open. Maybe she’d suggest tweaks, but always encouraged us to try. She’s been the best partner we could’ve asked for.”
Over time, the festival has grown in every direction, though not always by design. “Before COVID it was a different time. There’s a clear split. After COVID we saw a huge boom. Our first sold-out concerts, first fully booked day of the festival. But the audience is becoming more fragmented. Older audiences still attend concerts and festivals, but younger people engage with music differently. We’re experimenting to see how we can offer something that draws them in.”
Experimentation and curation have always been woven into Ritmo’s identity, and it’s shaped the way the festival approaches programming. Big-name bookings have never been the point. “Budapest Ritmo isn’t set up to book huge names, even in world music. But that’s never been our approach. We’ve built trust with the audience — they often don’t know the lineup in advance, but they know it will be worth it. We’ll take them somewhere new, they’ll leave with something fresh in their minds, they’ll feel changed. That’s always been the promise.”
That focus on discovery and ongoing reinvention also defines the way the team works year to year. The festival doesn’t end when the final set wraps. “Ha! No, it’s more like building a house: you never really stop! You think you’re done, but then new ideas come up. Or something falls through and needs replacing. First, we sit down with the team and evaluate. We talk, share feedback. We usually already have some ideas for the next edition, but everything can shift in 12 months.”
What sustains that process, Bellay says, is the people behind it. “The heart of any festival is its team. We know that. We treat them like gifts, something to nurture. That’s where the real value lies.”
That ethos hasn’t only shaped Ritmo, it’s also become the model for how Hangvető operates more widely. As the organisation has grown from a record label back in 2004 to an international multidisciplinary organisation, the team-based, project-driven approach has scaled with it. “Hangvető has changed. It’s no longer just one project. Ritmo used to be our biggest event, and in a way, it still is, it’s our love child. But now we work on multiple projects. No one person works solely on Ritmo all year. We assemble the team when the time comes, and build from there.”
That structure now underpins a range of major initiatives. MOST Music Agency, Hangvető’s new artist-representation arm, now champions a roster of niche and forward-facing acts from the Balkans and farther afield, connecting them with stages and collaborators across Europe. Alongside the agency, the MOST Music project has recently been relaunched in a new format as MOST Sessions, a one-year programme supporting early-career Balkan artists and managers with focused training and international showcase opportunities, including a new open call ahead of SHIP Festival 2025. UPBEAT has expanded its commitment to artists performing in original languages with the launch of UPBEAT 2, a four-year plan to develop showcase pathways across Europe. And it’s not over: Hangvető is also preparing to co-host Classical:NEXT 2026 in Budapest, marking the city’s debut as host of the global classical music summit.
Even as the scope has expanded, Bellay’s connection to Ritmo remains deeply personal. Her standout moments aren’t always found on stage. “There are many. Over the past 10 years, my personal life has changed as well. One of the nicest moments was bringing my son to the festival and seeing him enjoy it so much. Now when he sees city lights or signage, he points and says, ‘Look, Mummy, there’s Ritmo.’ She laughs. “I sometimes wonder how it all looks through his eyes, growing up in a family where you have music so close.”
Then there are the more surreal moments that happen when you’re in the thick of festival life. “Like yesterday evening, when I ended up driving Fatoumata Diawara. That’s another character I can add to my CV.”
And others feel foundational. “The first sold-out concert — Amadou & Mariam in 2022 — that sticks with you. You always remember the first one. I also remember the very first edition, when we weren’t at Akvárium Klub yet — we built a tent, it was cold and rainy, and Pekko Käppi was playing to maybe five people. But we were there, and we were happy that the tent hadn’t collapsed and the rain wasn’t getting in.”
It’s that sense of continuity — of building year by year, learning as you go — that shapes how Bellay sees the future. The point isn’t to arrive somewhere fixed, but to keep evolving. “Ritmo is a story of improvement and evolution. What happens in the next 10 years? Who knows.”
After all of it — the late nights, the risk-taking, the rain-soaked tents and sold-out halls — would she do it all again? Would she still answer yes to that call from Balázs Weyer?
“Yes, I think so. I don’t believe in bad decisions, only in how you look back on them. This journey added something to my life. I’ve gained insight, and I’ve grown richer through this work and through this music.”
Keep track of all the events and projects launched and run by Hangvető, including Ritmo, Classical:NEXT 2026, MOST Sessions & UPBEAT, on the organisation’s website