Black Sea Yayla Festivals

When families come up to the yaylas for the summer, the gathering that follows is the yayla şenliği - a day on a meadow with stalls, food, wrestling, speeches and, at the centre of it, the horon. It is a chain or ring dance, danced shoulder to shoulder or with linked arms, fast, with sharp shoulder shakes and stamping, and different districts have their own versions; the music is the tulum, a bagpipe made from a whole goatskin with a double chanter and no drone, played until the piper cannot continue, sometimes with the kemençe fiddle alongside. The sound carries a long way across open pasture, which is presumably the point. Festivals happen through July and August at Kadırga, Anzer, Ayder, Sisdağı and dozens of smaller yaylas, on dates fixed locally and announced in the villages rather than published anywhere useful. Turning up requires asking around, and the reward is a genuine local event rather than a staged one.

Highlights

• The horon - the ring dance with its shoulder work.
• The tulum - the goatskin bagpipe driving it.
• The meadow gathering - stalls, food and wrestling.
• The yayla setting - high pasture and cloud below.

When to go

July and August. Dates are set locally and announced in villages - ask in the nearest town or at your guesthouse rather than expecting a published calendar.

Practical notes

Dates shift and are hard to find in advance. These are community events, not performances - join in or watch, but do not treat them as a show. Roads to the yaylas are rough and get congested on festival days.

Nearby

Kadırga, Anzer and Ayder are among the best-known festival yaylas; the Fırtına valley and Kaçkar range are the setting.