Someone visiting Veszprém for the first time once described the city as a small jewellery box. Like a musical jewellery box.
They may have simply heard the Fire Tower’s verbunkos playing on the hour, or one of the outdoor concerts from a distance, but that was their first impression of the city. This person then took to the stage and performed, among other things, his song entitled Ghost Town, although this song is not really appropriate for Veszprém: the Bakony county capital has never been a ghost town. However, the jazzy, bluesy sound of the song boasts everything that characterises the musicality of Veszprém.
The unknown person was Katie Melua, a performer at VeszprémFest in 2014 and again in 2019. Of course, we could have also mentioned Tom Jones, Lisa Stansfield, Jamie Cullum, Emeli Sandé, Roger Hodgson and the members of Kool & the Gang, all of whom have graced the stage of VeszprémFest, but maybe we have already slighted some of the international stars we have omitted from the two decades of VeszprémFest history.
Celebrities or not, Katie Melua proved that even these popular music geniuses can be influenced by the atmosphere of a small European town.
