Rose Festival Held Again in Szőreg

After two years of hiatus due to the pandemic, the village of Szőreg, located near the city of Szeged in SE Hungary, is again hosting a rose festival at the end of this week: guests are welcome to the village, which is decorated with hundreds of thousands of flowers.

As András Avramov, the organizer and the municipal representative of the settlement, pointed out at a press conference this Monday, the Rose Festival was first organized in 1999 as a tribute to the gardeners who continue the unique tradition of rose-growing in Szőreg in Europe. The epidemic made the event impossible for two years, but this weekend everything in Szőreg will once again revolve around roses.

The most spectacular event of the festival will be the parade on Saturday evening, which will feature almost seventy horse-drawn carriages, horse-drawn carts, motorcars, veteran cars, tractors and other vehicles, and groups of all sizes, decorated with roses. Thousands of roses will be distributed to the spectators along the six-kilometer route, and thousands of flowers will be used to decorate the town and the vehicles.

On Friday, a family day will be held, followed by a full day of concerts and dance performances on Saturday. In the evening, after the parade, the new rose ladies will be inaugurated here, and the Ornamental Gardener of the Year, Young Rose Grower of the Year and the Medal for Szőreg will be awarded.

The Tömörkény István Cultural Center will host an exhibition of cut roses from the large breeding companies, as well as several exhibitions, a flower fair and the lavender harvest, which has become popular in recent years.

On Sunday, there will be a family running day over three distances, with half-marathon runners testing their endurance among blooming roses.

The Rose Festival is a big event not only for Szőreg, but also for the villages of the region. The soil between the two rivers (Tisza and Maros) is particularly favorable for rose gardening, which is why 90-92% of the 4.5-5 million rose plants produced in Hungary every year come from this region, and Szőreg rose plants are a recognized Hungaricum. In Szőreg and its surroundings, roses are grown on about 170 hectares of land in fifty farms, and this work provides a living for many people.