About us
"...we wanted to have a place where people can get together to share their joys, sorrows, and thoughts through music, dance, and words."– these words are from the initial Fonó brochure we issued at the very beginnings.
Over the eighteen years that have passed since then, our approach has not changed a bit.
“Fonó”, in the simplest interpretation of the word, is a communal space. Here, people of various cultures and creative groups have found each other, have had fun, and have worked together throughout the years. Thanks to its cultural openness, Fonó has become a legendary place, a receptive medium still operating as a privately owned institution. When developing a profile at the beginnings, we concentrated on fostering and presenting Central European folk music. Over time, the most prominent Hungarian jazz and ethno-jazz artists, and well-known performers of the European world music scene have also found a steady and cozy workshop here.
Fonó has always wanted to keep prominent artists and representatives of Hungarian culture around; to provide a home to artists who create persistent and groundbreaking works in their own areas and whose artistic activities represent a progressive direction in Hungarian cultural life. A few of the most well-known examples: György Szabados, Mihály Dresch, Félix Lajkó, Ágnes Herczku, Miklós Both, the Csík Band, and the Utolsó Óra [Final Hour] Program, the largest folk music collection project at the turn of the millennium.
Ranging from jazz and world music concerts to dance houses and festivals in and outside Fonó, our programs have been famous for surprising the audience with their diversity. This quality is carried over to our record publishing activities as well. Over the last 26 years, Fonó Records has released over 350 albums.
Having become an established center of Hungarian culture, Fonó wishes to stay the place where value and creativity are closely interwoven.