Awarded the title of “Cultural Ambassador of Flanders”, the Zita Swoon Group was founded in 1993 by Stef Kamil Carlens, previously well known as a founding member of dEUS. Initially, the group went by the name of A Beatband, then Moondog Jr., before finally settling on Zita Swoon – words meaning “intense desire” – under which moniker they have released 11 albums to date. Carlens has always shown openness towards African music, but we had to wait until the release of the album Wait for Me last ...year for this tendency to find its full expression. With the support of an Antwerp-based organisation, the singer and guitarist travelled to Burkina Faso three years ago, where she met balafon player Mamadou Diabeté and singer Awa Démé. Both were born into families of “griot” storyteller-musicians, placing on them the obligation to eschew the easy path to success and remain in their villages to record in song the everyday hunger, thirst and hopeless longing for escape of the local people. Deeply moved by Démé’s raw singing and Diabeté’s rapturous balafon playing, Carlens was almost immediately able to begin a musical communication rising above language barriers. From this collaboration emerged the album Wait for Me in 2012, in which West African Manding music is magically blended into the distinctive rhythm and blues sound of the Zita Swoon Group.
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.