Party breaks out in dried-up Danube riverbed in Budapest, sparking mixed reactions
Low water levels have exposed large stretches of the Danube riverbed in Budapest, and a photographer's video of a spontaneous nighttime party there has triggered a wave of divided reactions online.
In Budapest, falling water levels in the Danube have exposed the so-called Famine Rock near Liberty Bridge, a sign of how little water remains in the river. The riverbed section beneath the central pillar of Margaret Bridge is also surfacing more often each year, with an increasingly large area left dry.
Photographer Zsanett Zsebők posted a video on Facebook showing a spontaneous party held on a Saturday night directly on the exposed riverbed. The clip drew a flood of comments, split between those who found the impromptu gathering exciting and those who viewed it as an alarming sign of a natural disaster reshaping European summers, particularly in Hungary.
A recurring pattern
As far back as 2018, the underwater extension of the Margaret Island shoal on the other side of Margaret Bridge, toward the Parliament building, became walkable even in ordinary shoes. Since then, such dry spells have grown more frequent, longer-lasting, and wider in area.
Heritage architect László Wild, who led the most recent restoration of Margaret Bridge, has previously said the Budapest section of the Danube riverbed is in a state of considerable disorder. In past years, old metal rubbish bins typical of pre-World War II Budapest have repeatedly turned up there, along with what are believed to be remnants of scaffolding pillars used by Ernest Goüin's construction team until 1876, during the bridge's original construction.
As the exposed area grows, more people have been walking across from Margaret Island, where a new vantage point offers views of the city skyline that look especially striking under evening lights. What initially caused mere unease among passersby over climate change has now evolved into gatherings of revelers, leaving some anxious about the trend and others eager to simply enjoy the moment.
