Night of the Zoos Returns to Budapest: Where Myths Meet Wildlife
Budapest’s summer calendar has one more standout evening before the season winds down, and it belongs to the animals. On Friday, August 28, 2026, the Night of the Zoos, or Állatkertek Éjszakája, takes over zoos and wildlife parks across Hungary for its fifteenth year, and the capital’s two biggest venues, Budapest Zoo and the Budakeszi Wildlife Park, are both staying open late with feedings, shows, and family-friendly programming built around a genuinely fun theme: separating animal facts from popular myths.
A Night Built Around Animal Myths
This year’s nationwide theme is Facts and Myths in the Animal Kingdom, and thirteen member institutions of the Hungarian Association of Zoos and Aquariums are taking part across the country. Expect zookeepers and guides at various venues tackling classic misconceptions, like whether moles are really blind, whether hedgehogs actually carry apples on their spines, or whether bats genuinely get tangled in human hair. Most locations run their program on August 28, though a few regional venues shift the date slightly, so if you’re planning to combine Budapest with a day trip elsewhere in Hungary, it’s worth double-checking the specific site.
Budapest Zoo’s Big Night
At Budapest Zoo, officially the Fővárosi Állat- és Növénykert, the event runs from 7:00 PM to midnight, with last entry at 9:30 PM and a cap of 7,000 visitors on-site at any one time. Alongside the national myths-and-facts theme, the Budapest edition adds a film-focused twist, mixing animal encounters with screenings, concerts, fire performances, light projections, and planetarium shows across the grounds.
The animal encounters are scheduled throughout the evening and worth planning around if there’s a species you don’t want to miss. Tiger feeding happens at 7:30 PM near the tiger enclosure, while divers explore the shark tank at Shark School at the same time, and elephant training takes place just behind the Elephant House. Camel demonstrations also start at 7:30 PM by the camel paddock. A little later, giant otter and lion feedings both begin at 8:00 PM, followed by an elephant presentation at their pool and a snake encounter in the Palm House at 8:30 PM. The Palm House gets its own weather event too, with a tropical rain simulation running from 9:30 to 9:50 PM. Several of these encounters repeat later in the night, including another diving session and elephant presentation at 9:30 PM and a second snake encounter at 10:00 PM.
The Main Gate Square stage keeps the entertainment going with a full lineup, opening at 7:00 PM with an act called Urban Mirror Animals, followed by a concert from Kolos at 8:00 PM. Things heat up, literally, with a fire theater performance from the Tűzfészek Fire Juggling Troupe at 8:40 PM, a conversation-style segment at 9:40 PM, a concert from Boggie at 10:10 PM, and a second fire show closing out the stage program at 10:45 PM.
Over at the Magic Mountain Star Square stage, the focus shifts behind the scenes of veterinary work and nature filmmaking, with talks on how animal-hospital footage gets made, behind-the-scenes nature photography content, and a session specifically on facts and myths inside the zoo’s own animal hospital, running from 8:00 PM through 9:30 PM.
Film buffs get plenty to see too, with screenings running most of the night across different corners of the zoo. The Biodome terrace covers its own role in film history along with famous movie dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, the area near the alpaca enclosure mixes animal folklore with astronomy talks, and the space in front of the India House looks at Hollywood’s animal casting mistakes and how lions get portrayed on screen. There’s also a segment on spider myths near the otter house, and a horse-themed quiz paired with screenings at the Biodome’s outdoor paddock.
Best deals of Budapest
Beyond the scheduled shows, a wide range of activities runs continuously from 7:30 to 11:00 PM, including craft workshops, face painting, light painting installations around the zoo, planetarium screenings, astronomy programs, a hands-on Tapizoo experience, virtual reality stations, a small funfair, and the vintage Schaftner carousel. Several indoor exhibits also extend their hours until 11:00 PM, including the Palm House, Dragon House, Magic Mountain, Elephant House, Shark School, and parts of the Biodome, giving visitors plenty of air-conditioned space to duck into if the evening heat is still lingering.
Tickets for the Budapest Zoo event are separate from regular day admission, and standard day tickets or annual zoo passes won’t get you in. Tickets are available online, at the on-site ticket counters, or from ticket machines, but timing matters here since both the ticket counters and entry gates close at 9:30 PM. Adult tickets, for ages 14 and up, cost 8,000 forints, while children’s tickets, covering ages 2 to 14, are 5,500 forints.
Budakeszi Wildlife Park’s Evening Program
A short drive from central Budapest, the Budakeszi Wildlife Park runs its own version of the Night of the Zoos from 6:30 to 11:00 PM, with a theme centered on misunderstood animals that tend to get a bad reputation. The evening covers foxes, golden jackals, raccoons, bears, hedgehogs, owls, wildcats, and a general category of animals people simply tend not to like, with guided walks, feedings, and demonstrations dedicated to clearing up misconceptions about them.
Gates open at 6:30 PM, and the schedule moves quickly from there. The first display features Jane, a young golden jackal, getting her evening feeding between 6:45 and 6:55 PM, followed by a fox feeding from 7:00 to 7:10 PM, a raccoon feeding from 7:10 to 7:35 PM, a bear feeding from 7:40 to 7:50 PM, and a hedgehog feeding from 7:50 to 8:00 PM. From 8:00 to 8:45 PM, a stage presentation offers up-close animal encounters paired with interesting facts, running alongside a guided walk covering myths like whether wolves really howl the way people think and what’s actually true about deer antlers. A raffle draw takes place at 9:00 PM under the large event tent, followed by one more guided walk from 9:15 to 9:45 PM focused on well-known animal myths.
Tickets for the Budakeszi event can only be purchased on-site during the evening, not in advance online. The ticket counter closes at 10:00 PM and the gate itself closes at 11:00 PM. Regular day tickets, including adult, child, registration, and discounted rates, along with annual passes and gift or honorary tickets, are all valid for entry to this evening event. Standard base ticket prices are 4,800 forints for adults and 2,300 forints for children.
Which One to Choose
If you’re deciding between the two, Budapest Zoo offers the bigger production, with concerts, fire shows, planetarium screenings, and a packed schedule of encounters spread across a much larger site, making it a good fit for a full evening out in the city itself. Budakeszi Wildlife Park, just outside Budapest, leans into a more intimate, nature-focused experience with a tighter schedule built around species that don’t usually get much love, which can make for a nice contrast if you’re staying in the area for more than a day or simply prefer a quieter, less crowded setting. Either way, the timing lines up nicely with the tail end of summer in Budapest, when evening temperatures finally start easing off and a night among the animals feels like the right way to close out the season.
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