Kakava Festival (Edirne)
5 May 2026 — The fire is lit, the drum beats – spring arrives dancing!
Kakava is a spring festival of the Romani community in Edirne, Turkey, held on the eve of Hıdırellez, the traditional welcome of summer, marked on the night of 5–6 May. In folk tradition Hıdırellez divides the year into a cold and a warm half. In Edirne, Romani families gather by the Tunca (Tundzha) River at Sarayiçi, light big bonfires, play clarinets and drums, and dance late into the night. Fire stands for renewal and fertility; people jump over the flames and wish one another health and luck. The event has grown into a large public celebration with music and processions, and Hıdırellez is inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. The link with the sky is the turning of the seasons: the festival falls in mid-spring, when days are long and warm and the Sun climbs ever higher.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and lines, like a constellation: a small group of Romani musicians, one playing a clarinet and one a large drum, circling a great blazing spring bonfire drawn from bright star points, drifting slowly across the night sky
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