Kutno Rose Festival

The tradition & historical record

The Rose Festival is an annual exhibition of roses and florist arrangements which takes place in Kutno, Poland. The event takes place according to tradition on the first (sometimes second) weekend of September. The first exhibition took place in 1974. The exhibition is accompanied by gardening and firms bazaars, fairs on area of the city and concerts. In 2009 the automobile Rally of the Rose had its premiere. Roses and other flowers come from breeders of Łódź province while floristic arrangements are prepared by florists from Poland and elsewhere, for instance Russia, Latvia or Lithuania. ¹

The Rose Festival for the first time was organised in 1975 from 20 to 21 September by Kutno House of Culture (Kazimierz Jóźwiak had the initiative) named Kutno Rose Fair. During the event, rose exhibitions and handicrafts of Kutno artists were presented along with performances of folk instrumental music bands and solo performers. At first, the Kutno Rose Fair had no sponsorship; florists presented their exhibitions for free, bands performed for the proverbial "meal" in other words it was a festival cost-free event. In 1990 the name of the event was changed and the formula of the festival was enriched by broader artistic arrangements. ¹

Since 1990, the biggest artistic/entertainment/cultural event in Kutno is organised under a different name and progressively improving form. On the Rose Festival annually organised on the beginning of September, many concerts of both Polish and foreign music stars take place (for instance: Dżem, Myslovitz or Bad Boys Blue). Moreover, the Rose Festival consists mainly of exhibitions of rose compositions and events related to the rose topic. The festival is very popular amongst Kutno inhabitants, people who visit Kutno or everyone who wants to spend their time pleasantly. ¹

An important and inseparable part of The Rose Festival are the concerts of groups playing folk and popular music. Their performances are free and thanks to that gathers publicity from the whole Kutno region. Their diverse styles attract various kinds of audiences. ¹

For 35 years Kutno has been associated with the rose exhibitions (delivered by the local breeders) prepared by florists of Kutno, Poland region as well as the whole world. The form of the arrangements has been changing since the festival beginnings. Originally they were exhibitions of simple flower bouquet (of various kinds of roses) but with time, the form evolved into more plastic arrangement projects which had led into the current open form of extended artistic installations. Annual exhibitions are presented in a free form of interpretation but with an earlier set main theme. Themes of particular festival editions are: "33 Rose Arts/33 Roses" (33 Sztuki Róż) in 2007, "Garden of poetry" (Ogród Poezji) in 2008, "Treasures of the Queen" (Skarby Królowej) in 2009. Exhibitions are created by such great artists of floristics like Druvis and Inge Ciritis from Latvia, Agnieszka Bogusz from Kraków|Crokow or Marek Melerski. Flower exhibitions are supplemented by folk artists handicraft of works that interprets modern art with flower (or rose itself) related topics. ¹

Initiated for the first time in 2009, the rally has a 60 kilometers long route which begins on the Pope John Paul II st. and lead through the Kutno industry zone to end at the city center. Every car driver can take part in the rally (number of crews had been limited to 50). However, cars with valid car inspection and OC+NNW insurance are required. Second edition of the event is planned to take place on The Rose Festival in 2010. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Kutno Rose Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Kutno Rose Festival is flower exhibition in Poland, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²