Make sure you’re Hungary…sorry. Góbéfest shines the spotlight on the intriguing music, dance, culture, food and drink of the Carpathian Basin, bringing a lesser-known expanse of eastern Europe to Manchester every year.
Now in its seventh year, the festival will take place Friday 23-Sunday 25 June in Manchester’s Cathedral Gardens. Stalls will be open from 11am-11pm every day of the festival.
Refreshments will be provided by a number of independent food and drink traders, offering favourites from around the Carpathian Basin region, from giant pans of slowly simmered stews, to fried flat breads, lángos, tochitură, mititei, palinka, beigli and extravagant cakes.
For the first time, Góbéfest will be running its own food stall – the Góbé Grill. Traditional home cooked Hungarian and Romanian dishes including three types of spicy grilled sausages, mititei (barbecued Romanian skinless sausages made from pork, lamb and beef), meaty and vegan gulyás (goulash) and chips and will be cooked by Hungarian people from the local area.
The Langos Factory, returning to Góbéfest with their bestselling lángos (deep fried flatbreads topped with creme fraiche and cheese), gulyás (goulash) and stuffed cabbage leaves.
Levenshulme-based Delicii Românești, who will be serving up traditional Romanian fare including ciorbă de burtă (tripe soup), fasole cu ciolan (beans with pork) and tochitură, a dry dish of cubed pork.
Desserts include amandina, a fancy Romanian chocolate layered cake filled with chocolate, caramel and fondant cream and the rum-soaked, cream-topped savarina (similar to a rum baba.)
The Greekery’s souvlaki and gyros will be accompanied by a number of vegetarian and vegan options
Transylvanian Desserts are a new food trader for 2023, offering spit-roasted chimney cakes (kürtöskalács in Hungarian) filled with different flavours of ice cream, Hungarian cheesecake and beigli, a traditional sweet roll filled with a swirl of poppy seeds.
Another new dessert stall is Papanași Românești from London, selling waffles alongside papanași Românești, a kind of cottage cheese and sour cream-filled doughnut, topped with fruity jam.
Parázska Chimney Cake’s award winning Transylvanian varieties include a chocolate and chilli version of the barbecued sweet pastry (kürtöskalács) alongside chocolate raspberry and the traditional cinnamon sugar-dipped style
Pompas Mezes’ Hungarian honey bread is amongst the most intricately embellished in the world, often featuring designs reminiscent of lace and embroidery. The honey preserves the cookie, so it can be kept for over 10 years in its sealed packaging.
Candyland will be selling flavoured candy floss and popcorn varieties.
Beer will be supplied by Manchester Union Lager, which uses traditional central European brewing methods, with ‘Mancunian swagger’, and a Szicsek palinka bar will provide extra strong traditional fruit spirits with no added sugar, that are up to 50 percent proof.
The Góbéfest festival will take place on Friday 23rd – Sunday 25th June in Cathedral Gardens with stalls open from 11am-11pm each day.
