Wianki event

Traditionally, like every year, during St. John’s Fair you are welcome to take part in competition for the most beautiful garland. The competition will open on Saturday (June 25th) at 11 am. All the necessary materials (flowers, herbs and hair bands), as well as expert florists will be waiting for you at Czerwieński Boulevard. The competition will last until 2 p.m. and the winners will be announced at 3 p.m. The competitors who make the three most beautiful garlands will receive gift sets, including, among others, traditional Benedictine products.

Kupalnocka has been most popular for its long-held tradition of laying garlands on water. Telling one’s fortune from a garland, the symbol of maidenhood, was probably a separate tradition, not really connected with Midsummer Night; it was meant only for bachelors and bachelorettes as it concerned marriage and anticipated love. On that magic night marriageable girls wove garlands and lay them on river waters; thus their fortune was told: whether they were to be married soon or become spinsters. Initially the garlands were made of hay with interwoven fresh flowers; the hay was set on fire before the garland was put on the water. In later days girls wove garlands of herbs and wild flowers and put a candle inside. A Midsummer bouquet was to be made of the seven magic plants: mugwort, sundew, burdock, rue, mullein and Saint-John’s wort. They were to keep evil spirits away, protect the maker from illnesses and guarantee a good marriage.
If a garland was floating evenly on the water and the candle was burning brightly, or if the garland was recovered by the maker’s beloved, her fortune was favourable. If the garland was going round in circles, kept floating near the river bank, became tangled in water plants or sank, it augured love complications, misery, bad luck, the end of love, or even death. For young people this night was sometimes the only chance to choose one’s partner freely, without go-betweens or having to obey one’s parents’ will. Nowadays it is just a game and hardly anybody treats it as fortune telling.


You can also take part in the competition if you bring a garland you make yourself beforehand.


Also,in the evening,at Bulwary Wiślane,attendees will have an unique opportunity to listen Wyclef Jean for free!

Jewish Culture Festival

The Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków (Polish: Festiwal Kultury Żydowskiej w Krakowie, Yiddish: ייִדישער קולטור־פֿעסטיוואַל אין קראָקע) is an annual cultural event organized since 1988 in the once Jewish district of Kazimierz (part of Kraków) by the Jewish Culture Festival Society headed by Janusz Makuch, a self-described meshugeneh, fascinated with all things Jewish.The main goal of the festival is to educate people about Jewish culture, history and faith (Judaism), which flourished in Poland before the Holocaust, as well as to familiarize them with modern Jewish culture developing mostly in the United States and Israel, and finally, to provide entertainment.
Each festival is held in late June or early July and takes nine days, from Saturday to Sunday. During that time concerts, exhibitions, plays, lectures, workshops, tours, etc. are organized. The two most important concerts are: the inaugural concert on the first Sunday, and the final concert on the last Saturday of the festival. The former usually takes place in one of seven synagogues of Kazimierz and features cantoral music; the latter is always held outdoors, in Ulica Szeroka, the main street of the Jewish part of Kazimierz, and features klezmer music. In between there are many more concerts, usually with some variations of klezmer music.
The workshops provide an occasion to learn about traditional Jewish cuisine, dance, music, calligraphy and other aspects of Jewish culture. More about Jewish culture, as well as about topics related to the Holocaust, is taught at numerous lectures. Exhibitions of Jewish art, particularly paper-cut, are also organized. The program of the festival also includes tours of the synagogues and cemeteries of Kazimierz as well as the former Nazi-era Kraków Ghetto in the nearby district of Podgórze. During the festival Gentiles are also invited to watch or participate in Jewish prayers at the synagogue.

Jewish Culture Festival brings together artists of Jewish culture from all over the world - music bands, soloists, choirs, jazz musicians and dance teachers. The festival promotes a whole variety of different styles of Jewish music: synagogue song, hasidic, classical, Jewish folk and – very popular in Krakow nowadays – klezmer. For the Poles this event is a way of promotion of Jewish culture and paying a homage to the community that used to live in Poland, although many Jews were reportedly offended by the commercialization of Polish Jewish culture. "Others argue that there is something deeper taking place in Poland as the country heals from the double wounds of Nazi and Communist domination."
It is one of Poland's major annual cultural events and one of the biggest festivals of Jewish culture in the world. Artists and entertainers usually associated with the festival include: Benzion Miller, David Krakauer, Frank London, Leopold Kozłowski, Michael Alpert, Theodore Bikel, Paul Brody and many others. Jewish dances are led by Steven Weintraub.

Photography Month in Cracow

The Month of Photography in Krakow has established itself as one of Europe's leading photography festivals, since beginning life in 2002. Featuring over a hundred artists from all around Europe and beyond, the Photomonth Festival hosts nearly fifty displays each year along with a healthy smattering of workshops, seminars, lectures and moving picture shows.

For the last couple of years Photomonth has taken place during the month of May, turning the city of Krakow into one big exhibition space. The festival utilizes dozens of venues across the city, and apart from the draw of cutting edge photography, quite often the venues themselves are worthy of interest. Many of the displays are in exhibition spaces of bars or cafes which are normally hidden from the public eye, whilst some are in more extraordinary locations still, such as the 2006 and 2007 opening days at the deserted Okocim brewery on Lubicz Street.

With each exhibition boasting its own launch party, usually attended by the photographer in question, photo enthusiasts (many of whom prove to be budding shutterbugs themselves) race around the city to catch the festival in full flow... Either that or they're in it for the free wine, but let's not be cynical!

Whether you're a photo fanatic or simply a wino, the Photomonth generates a lot of excitement in the city each spring and has already proved itself to be an invaluable addition to Krakow's annual festivals. Long may it continue!