On Friday afternoon, the apostle of Hungarian gonzo-journalism, VBA aka András B. Vágvölgyi gave a lecture in the Chambok House. The lecture was about gonzo and Hunter S. Thompson since VBA translated his books to Hungarian, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, the Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and the Rum Diary. VBA met Thompson on two memorable occasions. On the first occasion he had to read out aloud from Fear and Loathing – translating it back from Hungarian to English, and then they went to a polo match together. The second occasion was not so carefree: VBA had visited the gonzo-pope a week before his suicide. This time VBA read out from his Apocalypse book.

Below you can read his thoughts on O.Z.O.R.A. Festival.

Péter Nemesházi

“When I was approached at Ozora yesterday for giving a lecture about Gonzo and Hunter S. Thompson and the use of mind altering substances in non-fiction and fiction I thought about when might I have heard of Ozora first. I mean not the festival and the famous solar eclipse party back in 1999, but the name of this geographical location. When I was kid I lived close to a square with an arcade around where the statutes of important figures of Hungarian history and culture and science stood. There were all the household names, but more esoteric ones as well. There was a dark brown wooden statue of a knight, with a real huge sword, full combat gear of the 1300s and called Ozorai Pippo, or Pippo of Ozora. I had no clue who this fucker was.

Pippo sounds more Italian, than Hungarian to me, probably he was an Italian samurai, a hired Gun of the Hungarian kings Louis the Great of Sigismond of Luxembourg, who got a hold on dynastically the Kingdom of Naples back in the XIVth century. Probably his services  were granted with an estate in the Transdanubian part of Hungary, namely Ozora.

Last night I tried to imagine Pippo of Ozora in Ozora. What would someone with a connection to this place think, if he was teleported here thru a time chanel almost 700 years later to this very valley in the night? Would he have freaked out? The aftermath of my last visit at Hunter S. Thompson’s fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado came to my mind. Couple of days later I was on the border of Utah and Arizona at Monument Valley (known film location for westerns) with my entourage, and dropped some local mushroom. (Monument Valley is a tribal area of the Navajo nation.) Space is too short here to explain the whole experience, but part of it were the huge red surfaces of the basalt monoliths around where I saw generations of Navajos in 2D wandering in history, real and/or virtual. And I thought of the first European to experience this, who was most probably a miserable Spaniard 500 years ago, a conquistador went rogue. It would have definitely been a mystic experience for him, more mystical than it is for the most of us. He might have made friends with the Native Americans, and possibly took part in their rituals. What the “Pagans” do, when they get closer to eternity?

I think Pippo of Ozora’s feels yesterday night would have been a similar attempt: unknown mystic/religious experience, a ritual of sorts with the strange lights and sounds, which altered the otherwise familiar valley, the barely dressed people, never before seen tattoos and hairdos. I imagine Pippo of Ozora a true Catholic, but not a family man. We never heard of his clan, was no dynasty founder, just a knight from Naples teleported to Central Europe. Yesterday night Pippo of Ozora would have had two options: either to join in the night getting rid of his heavy combat gear, or fight it. Like this other Spaniard, the sorry-faced knight from La Mancha, whose big problem was that by the mercy of late birth he had missed the Crusades, the age of very good manners, the knightliness of the earlier Middle Ages. But, since he couldn’t find his aimed for values, he was the one to fight windmills.

I hope Pippo of Ozora would have joined in the party yesterday, not to fight windmills. And I’m pretty sure HST, the writer and icon also would advise anyone: join in the party and don’t fight windmills!

Mahalo!”