Wianki

Wianki means wreaths, and the practice behind the festival is pre-Christian: on the shortest night of the year unmarried women floated wreaths of flowers with a candle in them down the river, and where and how the wreath travelled was read as an answer about marriage. In Krakow the custom attached itself to the Vistula under Wawel hill and was revived as a public event in the nineteenth century, later merged with the feast of St John. Since the 1990s the city has run it as a large free festival on the riverbank in late June: concerts on a stage by the water, crowds along both banks and on the bridges, wreaths still floated, and a fireworks display over the river with the castle lit behind it, which is the image that gets photographed. It draws well over a hundred thousand people, and the whole embankment closes to traffic for the evening.

What you actually see

• Wreaths on the water - the old midsummer custom, still practised.
• The riverbank stage - concerts along the Vistula through the evening.
• Fireworks over the river - with Wawel lit behind them.
• Both banks full - well over a hundred thousand people along the embankments.

When to go

Late June, on the night of the event. An evening.

Honest expectations

It is extremely crowded and the good viewpoints fill hours ahead. Bridges and embankments close. Getting out afterwards takes a long time. The date shifts each year - check it.

Nearby

Wawel is directly above; Kazimierz is downstream.