Ügetőszilveszter at Kincsem Park: The Budapest New Year's Eve That Ends Before Midnight
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Budapest’s biggest New Year’s Eve sporting event finishes at ten in the evening. At the last edition the gates opened at one in the afternoon, the racing started at two and the fireworks went up at ten to nine, so by the time most of the city was thinking about where to stand at midnight, Kincsem Park was emptying out. The organiser’s own description of it is the biggest outdoor before-party in town, which is a rare case of a venue describing itself accurately.
Get that straight and the day makes sense. This is not a countdown event. It is where the last day of the year goes before the countdown, and it happens on 31 December every year, not on whichever weekend happens to be nearby.
The shape of the day
The last edition ran like this: gates at 13:00, racing from 14:00, fireworks at 20:50, site closed at 22:00. Kincsem Park has confirmed the 2026 edition for Thursday, 31 December, but its event page still says details are coming soon: no programme, times or ticket prices yet. Until they post, treat these as the shape of the day rather than as this year’s schedule.
Between those markers came ten trotting races and three greyhound races, plus a pony “superfinale”, a puszta-ötös horsemanship display, celebrity drivers, the Horse of the Year awards, DJ sets and a roaming Mirror Man.
Some of that changes from year to year, and some of it is the fixed backbone. Kincsem Park describes the recurring part like this: it is the last big horse and greyhound meeting of the year, the Horses of the Year are honoured on the day, and the card carries two memorial races, the Bubik István and the Zenthe Ferenc, with well-known Hungarian public figures among the starters. The sporting high point of the afternoon is the Lovaregyleti Díj. Between races a DJ keeps things moving, and the KissCam, DanceCam and FunCam pull the crowd into the show, which is worth knowing before you kiss anyone in the stands.
Food and drink follow a set pattern too: a spread of street food, mulled wine, tea and sparkling wine. At the last edition that meant the Gastro Courtyard vendors and around ten Kincsem buffets doing mulled wine and pretzels, with the Kincsem Music Bar and the Panoráma Restaurant upstairs for anyone who wants a table and a roof.
That restaurant is worth knowing about: proper cooking, table service and a view straight down over the track. On New Year’s Eve its tables go early, so if you want one, book ahead rather than hoping to walk in.
2026 date read on the Tippmix Ügetőszilveszter 2026 event page and its date poster at kincsempark.hu, 12 October 2026.
What you are actually watching
Trotting is the bit that catches people out, because the horse is not ridden.
It pulls a light two-wheeled cart called a sulky, with the driver sitting in it behind the horse, and it has to hold a trot for the whole race. Breaking into a gallop gets penalised. Past that, it works how you would expect: first past the post wins. The venue’s own summary is that the rules are simple and the fastest horse with a driver in control wins, and for a first visit that is genuinely all you need.
Kincsem Park runs three racing codes across the year, gallop, trotting and greyhound, and 31 December is the trotting day.
What it costs
Prices below are what the most recent edition charged. The organiser has confirmed the 2026 date but not yet its ticket prices, and historically opens sales in the autumn, so treat these as the shape of the pricing rather than a quote.
| Ticket tier | Adult | Student |
|---|---|---|
| Earliest advance tier | 5,000 Ft (about 16 USD) | 4,000 Ft (about 13 USD) |
| Second advance tier | 6,500 Ft (about 21 USD) | 5,000 Ft (about 16 USD) |
| Standard advance | 8,000 Ft (about 25 USD) | 6,000 Ft (about 19 USD) |
| On the gate, 31 December | 9,000 Ft (about 28 USD) | 7,000 Ft (about 22 USD) |
Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the counter. Converted at 1 USD = 316 HUF, the ECB rate on 1 September 2026. Rates move, so treat the converted figures as indicative.
Children under 14 get in free. You may come across a page saying under-18, and that page is old. Advance tickets sell through Cooltix, and the gap between the earliest tier and the door is nearly double, so this is an event worth buying ahead for.
One number to be actively suspicious of: 2,000 Ft. It appears on an evergreen-looking page and gets copied onward by listings sites, and it has not been the price for years. Anyone budgeting from it arrives 7,000 Ft short at the gate.
The betting, for people who have never done it
Betting is central to the day rather than a sideshow, and it is strictly 18+.
The minimum stake is 500 Ft. The bet types are the familiar ones, win, place, exacta and trifecta, and there is a jackpot pool running across the domestic races. Cash works everywhere on site. Card payment is limited to designated cashiers and only for stakes above 2,000 Ft, so bring notes.
The useful part is that the windows deal with people who have no idea what they are doing all day long, and English and German are generally covered at them.
Bringing children, and being straight about it
This is a family-friendly afternoon built around an adults’ betting event. Both things are true at once and the useful version is to say so.
Working in its favour: under-14s go free, and the last edition laid on pony races, a treasure-hunt map for the youngest, a carousel and a photo booth. Dogs are welcome on a lead and muzzle, though not inside the greyhound stadium while those races are running.
Working against it: the betting is 18+ and it is what the day is organised around, and by the time the light goes the crowd has moved on to mulled wine, sparkling wine and DJ sets. Come for the afternoon with children and leave before the evening turns, and it works well. Plan on staying to the fireworks with a five-year-old and you are at a different event.
Dress for the cold, and know where the warm spots are
This is several hours outdoors at the end of December, and Kincsem Park’s own advice is to dress for it properly: thick-soled boots, warm trousers, a coat, a hat, a scarf and gloves. Take the list literally. The racing does not pause for anyone who came in city shoes.
The park holds more than 10,000 people at once, and the warm places do not grow with the crowd. The Aula is the main indoor spot to thaw out, and not everyone fits in it at the same time. The heated Panoráma Restaurant, with its view down over the track, is not a walk-in warm room on the day: its tables were booked out ahead at recent editions, so if you want one, book early.
Tickets are not for a fixed seat. The grandstand has 3,500 seats, and with a crowd this size, expect to stand. If you have a spot in mind, arrive earlier than feels necessary.
The evening greyhound races run at the Nemzeti Agárstadion, the National Greyhound Stadium, and the place to watch them is the other stand, beside the big screen. Once the trotting winds down, that is where to move.
Getting there
M2 metro to Pillangó utca. The racecourse sits at Albertirsai út 2-4 in District X, alongside the Hungexpo grounds, roughly ten to fifteen minutes on foot from the station depending on which gate you are aiming for.
Do not drive. For New Year’s Eve the organiser states plainly that there is no parking at the site, street parking nearby is very limited, and people are asked to arrive on foot, by public transport or by taxi. It names all three without ranking them, so a taxi to the gate is as much the intended answer as the metro.
The horse the place is named after
Kincsem means “my treasure”, and she has a decent claim to being the greatest racehorse anyone has ever bred.
Foaled in March 1874 at Tápiószentmárton, she raced from 1876 to 1879 and won all 54 of her starts. Not most. All of them. She retired unbeaten at five and that record has stood ever since, comfortably ahead of anything since. Her breeder Ernő Blaskovich kept her only because Baron Orczy looked at her and declined to buy, which tells you what the experts thought of a plain chestnut filly with no white markings and a reputation as common-looking. Her English trainer Robert Hesp knew better.
She raced in Germany and Austria-Hungary, and her signature win was the Kaiserpreis in Vienna in 1877 with Emperor Franz Joseph watching. She died in 1887. There are statues of her and of Imperiál standing in the park, and a 2017 Hungarian film about her that was, at the time, the most expensive ever made in the country.
The racecourse itself opened on 10 May 1925 and took her name in 1977. The grandstand holds 3,500.
Before you go
The venue publishes a genuinely useful English section covering the racing codes, the track, the address and the opening hours, which is more than most Hungarian domestic sports venues manage. The New Year’s Eve event page carries its address and its transport directions in English too. What stays Hungarian-only is the commercial half: the ticket tiers, the on-sale dates and the checkout itself.
In practice that means you can turn up on the day, pay at the gate and have an excellent time without a word of the language. What you cannot easily do is plan it in advance in English. So the move is to check kincsempark.hu in the autumn when sales open, put a translation tool on the ticket page, and buy early, because the door price is the most expensive way in by some distance.
And because this one finishes at ten, you still need a plan for midnight. The New Year’s Eve programmes guide covers what the rest of the city is doing once the racing is over, the Christmas markets are still running in the days before it, and if the metro is unfamiliar territory, tickets and the fine trap are explained in the BudapestGO guide.
Good to know
When is Ügetőszilveszter at Kincsem Park?
31 December, every year. It is not a movable weekend fixture, it is the calendar date itself, and the venue has been running it for more than twenty years. Kincsem Park has now confirmed the 2026 edition for Thursday, 31 December on its own event page. Its event page says details are coming soon, and no programme, times or ticket prices are published yet. kincsempark.hu is where they will surface first, ahead of any listings site.
Does the New Year's Eve racing at Kincsem Park go on until midnight?
No, and this is the thing most people get wrong about it. At the last edition gates opened at 13:00, racing started at 14:00, the fireworks went off at 20:50 and the site closed at 22:00. The organiser describes it as the biggest outdoor before-party in Budapest, which is accurate: it is where you spend the afternoon and early evening, and you go somewhere else for midnight.
How much does it cost to get into Ügetőszilveszter?
At the most recent edition, 9,000 Ft for an adult buying on the gate on the day, and 7,000 Ft for a student. Buying ahead was substantially cheaper, starting at 5,000 Ft in the earliest tier and rising through the autumn. Children under 14 get in free. Be careful with older listings: a 2,000 Ft figure from a long-dead price list is still circulating, and it is off by more than four times.
What is trotting racing and how is it different from normal horse racing?
The horse is not ridden. It pulls a light two-wheeled cart called a sulky with the driver sitting in it, and it has to maintain a trot for the whole race rather than galloping. A horse that breaks into a gallop is penalised. First past the post still wins, so the racing reads the same from the stands, but the gait rule is what the regulars are actually watching.
Can you bet at Kincsem Park if you have never done it before?
Yes. The minimum stake is 500 Ft, the bet types are the standard ones including win, place, exacta and trifecta, and the cashiers are used to visitors who do not speak Hungarian, with English and German generally covered. Cash works everywhere on site; card payment is only at designated cashiers and only above 2,000 Ft. Betting is strictly 18+.
Is Ügetőszilveszter suitable for children?
It is a family-friendly afternoon wrapped around an adults' betting event, and both halves of that are real. In favour: under-14s go free, the last edition laid on pony races, a treasure-hunt map for the youngest, a carousel and a photo booth, and the site is dog-friendly on a lead and muzzle. Against: betting is 18+ and it is central to the day, and by evening it is a drinking crowd with mulled wine and DJ sets. The afternoon is the children's part.
How do you get to Kincsem Park?
Take the M2 metro to Pillangó utca. The racecourse is at Albertirsai út 2-4 in District X, next to the Hungexpo grounds, roughly ten to fifteen minutes on foot from the station. For New Year's Eve specifically the organiser states there is no parking at the venue and asks people to come on foot, by public transport or by taxi, so driving yourself is the one approach to rule out. Street parking around the park is very limited.
What should I wear to Ügetőszilveszter?
Dress for several hours outdoors on the last day of December. Kincsem Park's own advice is thick-soled boots, warm trousers, a coat, a hat, a scarf and gloves, and it is advice to take literally. The Aula is the indoor place to warm up, though it cannot hold everyone at once. The heated Panoráma Restaurant looks straight down over the track, but its tables were booked out ahead at recent editions, so book early if you want one. Tickets do not come with a fixed seat: the grandstand has 3,500 seats, and with a crowd this size, expect to stand.
Who was Kincsem?
The best racehorse Hungary ever produced and, by the numbers, the best that has ever raced anywhere. Foaled in 1874 at Tápiószentmárton, she ran 54 races between 1876 and 1879 and won every single one, which is still the longest unbeaten record in the sport. Her most famous win was the Kaiserpreis in Vienna in 1877, watched by Emperor Franz Joseph. She was a plain chestnut with no white markings, dismissed as ordinary-looking as a youngster, and there is a statue of her in the park named after her.