February is the battleground between Carnival and Lent, with the division between the two camps falling almost exactly mid-month. The Opera Rara Festival culminates with the performance by Dunedin Consort and John Butt, forming a prelude of the Misteria Paschalia Festival. And as Carnival transitions smoothly into Lent, the food and flavours on offer also change. Event organisers know how to make the most of this: Opera Rara hosts low-key meetings with culinary experts talking about the ties between cuisine and the arts, while the city hosts a sumptuous family Shrovetide feast at Stara Zajezdnia in Kazimierz, packed full of local delicacies and tales of seasonal Cracovian traditions.

And while on one hand doughnuts symbolise the opulence of Fat Thursday, on the other herring symbolises the long weeks of Lent. And while we’re on the subject, landlocked Kraków gets a taste of the salty seas with the great meeting of lovers of songs of the sea: welcoming seasoned seadogs since 1981, the events of this year’s Shanties festival focus on weather. And although February is often blustery, we’ll be keeping our spirits up in Kraków! The month kicks off with the Dzień Dobry ICE Kraków! meeting for kids and young people – and don’t forget that the one and only Ice Skating Rink in Wolnica Square is open until the end of the month.

Raise anchor!

(Grzegorz Słącz, Editor-in-Chief)