The YES festival, closing event of the two-year Ulysses: European Odyssey programme, was organised in Derry, Northern Ireland. The event was held as part of the Bloomsday tradition (Bloomsday is celebrated every year on 16 June by the fans of the 100-year-old, unlimited cultural heritage of James Joyce), and this year, it focused on female creators, mirroring the shift from Bloom’s character to his wife, Molly. (Interesting fact: Leopold Bloom is actually of Hungarian origins.)

All 18 cities taking part in the programme created their own installation, and contributed to the festival with a female creator’s production.

On the festival, Hungary introduced Grand Novel Budapest, developed by Budapest Brand. The Grand Novel, a collection of local stories, was created with the contribution of 23 contemporary writers. A short documentary of the creation process was screened at the Brook Park Leisure Centre, where the audience could also find out more about the background of the initiative, as well as István Tasnádi’s most recent work written for the new volume of European Ulysses.

Noémi Kiss, author of the 16th chapter of Grand Novel Budapest, shared her experience with the locals on a full-day creative writing workshop. Together, they created a string of stories depicting the unique aspects of the city, all from a personal perspective.

Máté Gáspár, the mind behind the original idea of the project, has thanked the Creative Europe Fund and the leaders of the consortium, as well as the colleagues of Arts Over Border and Brave New World Production for the invitation, the support, and all the work done together. The result was the Grand Novel itself — the performative interpretations of which can be seen all around the different districts of Budapest in the coming months.