Good practice:

„CABBAGE FESTIVAL” OF HAJDÚHADHÁZ

Hajdúhadház is a small town with approx. 12,000 inhabitants in Eastern Hungary. Although it lies less than 20 km from Debrecen, the largest economic and cultural centre of the region, Hajdúhadház has to cope with various socioeconomic problems, for example selective outmigration (the young and educated inhabitants move from the town), high unemployment rate, many inhabitants living out of social benefits, a relatively large proportion of uneducated and unskilled population, and as a result of this, a negative image of the town.
The local government recognized the need for a community event to strengthen the identity of the locals so initiated the so called „Cabbage Days”, a culinary festival, held at the end of September. The festival has been organized annually since 2004, and it focuses on the most famous agricultural produce of the area: the „hadházi flat” type of cabbage. During the festival, various programmes take place, e.g., concerts, shows, tasting of meals made of cabbage, cooking competitions, etc. The preparatory phase of the festival includes an intensive online and offline marketing campaign. The number of visitors is continuously increasing and besides the economic advantages, the popularity of the event contributes to rising the self-esteem of the local community. The main beneficiaries are local people who take part in organizing the event, and also participate in the programmes, but the event attracts tourists from the domestic market as well.

The local government supports the event financially out of its annual budget. Companies also donate certain amounts besides the amount of money originating from the entrance fees to the festival. Approx. 200 people work for the success of the festival, many of them volunteers.

This can be considered as a good practice for several reasons. The local government initiated a gastronomic and cultural programme, which benefits the whole community by providing job opportunities for locals, preserving the culinary traditions of the region, and increasing the self-esteem of the community. In 2018 during the 3 days of the festival approx. 15,000 visitors took part in the programmes. There were 3 stages, 20 artists on stage, about 100 types of meals made of cabbage were served.

As the festival is funded by the municipality, local people sometimes opposed organizing entertainment programmes from taxpayers’ money but realizing its added value attracting visitors and a possibility to sell their products (meals, cabbage) they agree to go on.

This is a good example for a local government’s initiative to boost the local economy, and improve the quality of life of the people. The key success factors include the inspiring and motivated leaders of the town, who were able to specify the gastronomic heritage (cabbage and cabbage dishes) which is worth preserving and created the event around it. Brand building for the town started based on the high-quality gastronomic products. The local government also established and registered a trade-mark „hadháztáji”, which is used for the locally grown or locally processed gastronomic products. A shop was opened to sell these local products. By these means new job opportunities have been created, the unemployed population of the town could join in the implementation phase of the project. Meanwhile, the image of the town started to improve as well. This practice demonstrated how gastronomy can be utilized for improving the quality of life of a community.