UPS Hungary helps RBIF avoid infamy

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Organising a Burns Supper takes a bit of coordination, making sure that all the elements that make up a successful event are planned, arranged and delivered on time to celebrate the birthday of Scotland’s most famous bard.

In the 22 years that the RBIF has held Budapest’s biggest Burns Supper for charity, many things now thankfully run like clockwork, helped by the familiarity of the event location at the Corinthia Hotel, the home of the Burns Supper since 2004.

Yet changes are necessary from time to time, and this year it gives us an opportunity to highlight the logistics behind one of the most important parts of the Burns Supper.

Just a few days before submitting the annual order for our haggis and cheese in early January 2019 we still did not know how we were going to get it to Budapest. Some 140kg of product is not something you can just stick in a suitcase and hope the check-in staff at the airport are sympathetic to your cause. Clearly, we needed help.

And fortunately we got it, all thanks to Jim Kearney, Country Partner at UPS for Hungary, Greece, Romania and Slovenia. After explaining our predicament to Jim, he asked for a little time to discuss the details with his colleagues at UPS Scotland, but we had no reason to worry.

What followed was very slick and professional handling of our logistical problem. Every year we order in excess of 100kg of award-winning haggis from Cockburns Butchers in Dingwall, right in the north of Scotland. This year our 30-40kg of cheese came from Royal Deeside via I.J. Mellis in Edinburgh. So it’s not a simple A to B job either, even more so when it leaves the UK, as shown by the map.

But Jim and his colleague Scott Fowler in Scotland, along with their respective teams, were up to the task. Within 36 hours everything was delivered safe and sound to the Corinthia Hotel in central Budapest, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. UPS had saved the RBIF from the infamy of organising a Burns Supper without any haggis, all in the spirit of charity and helping sick and underprivileged children in Hungary.

Just click on the photos to track the route of the haggis and cheese through Europe. We hope you all enjoyed sampling them at the Burns Supper, and a huge thanks to UPS for their voluntary support.

 

Make sure you like the RBIF Facebook page or follow us on Instagram or Twitter to keep up to date with all the RBIF will be doing throughout 2019.

2019 Budapest Burns Supper

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A huge thank you to everyone that attended the Annual Budapest Burns Supper on 26 January 2019. The 22nd annual event was held as ever in the Grand Ballroom of the Corinthia Hotel Budapest.

As a Burns Supper there are many traditional elements, such as the Address to the Haggis, performed by the lead piper Rab Tait in his own inimitable way. Guests are also treated to Scotland’s national dish of haggis, neeps and tatties as a starter, with many asking for more! This year, UPS stepped up to bring over 140 kg of haggis and cheese from Scotland to Budapest for the Burns Supper.

The entertainment this year was a veritable mix of Scottish and Hungarian culture. First of all we heard the wonderful voice of Rebecka Johnston, singing some traditional Scottish folk songs. Then we had the amazingly talented Alison Ewan, a Scottish fiddler who flew out specifically to be with us at the Burns Supper. After Alison played for us she was joined on stage by a Hungarian fiddler and the rest of the Corinthia’s resident band for a truly delightful international performance.

The Budapest Burns Suppers have been growing and growing, and have been sell-outs in the last few years. The superb venue provides a great setting for some serious fundraising in the course of the evening, which was helped this year by our auction, which we took online for the very first time, and this led to some great competition for the great prizes on offer.

Overall we raised just short of HUF 14 million, which will be donated to the 2nd Department of Paediatrics in Tűzoltó utca, the Péterfy Children’s Hospital, and other projects to be announced over the coming months by the Robert Burns International Foundation.

Sponsor of the Year was Budapest Airport, a huge thanks to them, but the event can never be held without the support of our other major sponsors too:

Nevis Sponsors: FirstMed Centers, BP
Saltire Sponsors: BlackRock, Woodbrook Wealth, Generali Insurance
Thistle Sponsors: Provident, CBRE
Auction/raffle sponsor: Qatar Airways

You can find the photos from the Burns Supper in our gallery, but also take a look at the video below which really captures the atmosphere at the event, and we are grateful to Péter Thoman at Inter-PR for his voluntary help in recording all the great photo and video memories.

The organisers would also like to thank WhiskyNet, Arran Distillery, CocaCola, Heineken, Diageo, Zwack, Miko Coffee, Szentkirályi-Kékkúti Water  and Vylyan Wineries, as well as all those who helped with the raffle and the auction.

Make sure you like the RBIF Facebook page or follow us on Instagram or Twitter to be sure of hearing all the details about next year’s event in good time, and to find out what projects the RBIF will be supporting throughout 2019.

The Robert Burns International Foundation (RBIF) is supported by the British Ambassador to Hungary and the Hungarian Ambassador to the UK. The Honorary President of the foundation is Sir Alex Ferguson, former manager of Manchester United football club. In the last 20 years the organisation has raised several hundred thousand euros to help sick and underprivileged children.

Contact: [email protected]

2018 Charity Wine-tasting – Buddha-Bar Hotel

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On 15 November 2018 the RBIF held a charity wine-tasting event in the fantastic setting of one of Budapest’s finest hotels, the BuddhaBar Hotel.

The ultimate objective of the wine-tasting was to choose the wines that we will serve at the 2019 Burns Supper to be held on 26 January, but perhaps more importantly it gave everyone a chance to enjoy a relaxing and informal Thursday evening in good company and with some excellent wines.

The charity wine-tasting provided an opportunity for guests to taste their way around Hungary, without ever leaving the capital. Indeed, we had a nice range of Italian wines too, which were a great complement to the many Hungarian products on display.

We were lucky to enjoy the support of many winemakers from around the country, including the Árvay Winery (Tokaj), Szent Donát Winery (Csopak), Babiczki Winery (Mátra), Vylyan Vineyards (Villány), Etyeki Kúria Winery (Etyek), Hetényi Winery (Szekszárd), Frittmann Winery (Soltvadkert), Orosz Gyula Winery (Etyek), Szende Winery (Villány), Vinox Wine Traders, and the house wines from our host for the Burns Supper, the Corinthia Hotel.

Please click on the photos below to see exactly what happened at the wine-tasting, thanks to everyone who came!

2018 Summer BBQ

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On 2 September 2018 the RBIF held its inaugural (end-of) summer BBQ at the Chefparade Country venue in Etyek, just 30 minutes outside Budapest. It looked for a while that […]

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