Szekszárd is packing 2026 with music, flavors, and easygoing small-town vibes. The city’s calendar blends classical and popular concerts, outdoor shows, festivals, and gastro events throughout the year, and visitors can choose from both set programs and build-your-own leisure plans. Whether you want candlelit jazz or a singalong tribute night, there’s something on the schedule—and plenty of wine to pair with it.
Key concert dates to lock in
January 27, 2026 — Jazz a lelke mindennek! Jazzformers. Jazz warms up the year in Szekszárd with the Jazzformers headlining a night built for fans of improvisation.
February 11, 2026 — Miklós H. Vecsei and Qjúb (Vecsei H. Miklós és a Qjúb) concert evening. Tickets run $8.20. Expect poetic pop textures, actor-musician charisma, and intimate storytelling that sells out fast.
March 8, 2026 — We Love in Hungarian! Band (Magyarul Szeretjük! Zenekar) — Women’s Day concert. A celebratory set in Hungarian, big on feel-good anthems and crowd energy.
May 21, 2026 — “Without music, what am I worth…” Zsuzsa Cserháti and Péter Máté memorial concert (“Zene nélkül mit érek én…” Cserháti Zsuzsa és Máté Péter emlékkoncert). Tickets are $24.50. A heartfelt tribute to two icons, with nostalgia-rich arrangements and singalong choruses.
Number of concert listings: 4
Stay where the wine lives
Hotel Merops**** sits in downtown Szekszárd, next to the Mészáros wine house, just minutes from the city center on foot. It’s designed for both peace-seekers and active weekenders, with distinctive interiors, a trained team, and tailored services. There are 8 rooms and 2 apartments for travelers, plus a network of culinary programs in the city and nearby. Inside the Nádasdi House, Main Street Bistro wins locals and visitors with a broad menu and refined plates. Wine tastings are organized, and the cellar hosts quintessential Szekszárd-mood events—birthdays, friendly dinners, or corporate nights—promising a memorable time.
Sió Motel sits at Szekszárd’s northern gate along Route 6, between the Szekszárd and Tolna wine regions, close to the Gemenc Forest and by Sárköz, spanning 6.18 acres. It’s a practical base if you want quick access to both nature and cellar doors.
Hotel Zodiaco*** is the only three-star hotel in Szekszárd and its surroundings, welcoming guests in a modern, elegant setting. Its philosophy is simple: satisfaction through constant innovation, year after year, to make business stays and weekend breaks as smooth as possible.
Number of accommodation listings: 43
Cellars, tastings, and menus with a mission
Attila Estate (Attila Birtok) in the Baranya Valley manages 34.6 acres of vines, growing Kékfrankos, Kadarka, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zweigelt. Traditional varieties, clean processing, and expressive reds lead the lineup.
At Bodri, harmony is the kitchen’s compass. Chef Norbert Makk crafts pairings that sing with Bodri wines, modernizing the rich variety of Hungarian cuisine while keeping comfort and flavor front and center. Bodri Winery (Bodri Pincészet) spans 247 acres and doubles as a tourism hub—winery, event center, restaurant, show kitchen, and guesthouses—in a postcard-pretty valley on Szekszárd’s southern edge. The 19,375-square-foot main cellar sports twelve domes. A 3,229-square-foot aging cellar opens on tours, while a 15,069-square-foot rosé plant turns out larger volumes of high-quality wine. The estate’s refined guest rooms sleep 61. Guests also get a thermal-water underground domed Roman bath, jacuzzi, and sauna. At Optimus Restaurant (Optimus Étterem), expect the many shades of Hungarian cuisine, freshly updated.
Borfaragó Cellar (Borfaragó Pince) lives in the heart of the Upper Town, inside a former carpenter and woodcarver workshop. It hosts tastings of artisanal wines alongside folk woodcarving masterpieces. If you want a discreet venue off the main drag but still easy to reach, this is your spot.
The Várdomb estate center leans into Kékfrankos for its quality, reliability, and range—bottled solo and as the backbone of blends. Other carefully tended varieties include Riesling, Cserszegi Fűszeres, Kadarka, Kékoportó (Blauer Portugieser), Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Syrah.
A local artisanal winery plants mostly in the Porkoláb Valley and processes only estate-grown fruit. Their wines skip lab-cultured yeasts, malolactic bacteria, enzymes, fining agents, colorants, flavor and aroma modifiers, acid adjustments, filtration, sterilization, oxygen dosing, and heat treatment. Every wine is bottled.
Another cellar champions Szekszárd’s signatures while experimenting with blends. Nearly every available red grape becomes a rosé, which has earned serious accolades abroad. The reds hold their own, too. Expect Kékfrankos and Kadarka leading, complemented by international Merlot, Cabernet, and Pinot Noir, while preserving Szekszárd’s taste profile.
“Something different from the usual” could be the mantra across the hills: switch off, lean back, and let the wines do the talking.
The Eszterbauer family, with Swabian and Serbian roots, runs a tradition-steeped family winery in Szekszárd. Their representative wine house and show cellar host tastings presented by family members. In the combined wine and guest house, groups of 8 to 50 can book tastings and food, from simple bites to multi-course dinners. Their webshop stocks award winners for at-home sipping.
A family winery tending 16.3 acres across four Szekszárd sites focuses on Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Kékfrankos, delivering a tight, characterful selection.
ORGANIZERS RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE DATES AND PROGRAMS!
