On September 12, the international Varėna Mushroom Festival will create a special event for mushroom pickers and mushroom eaters – the “Forest Tale.” It will intertwine nature, ancient traditions, culture, and community spirit.
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“The Mushroom Championship begins with the first porcini mushrooms, and they are already here. Mushrooms have already been sizzling in my pan. We will pick, dry, and freeze them for winter,” says Algis Kašėta, mayor of Varėna district municipality, vacationing in his native Dzūkija forests. He recalls that mushroom picking has been an important part of his life since childhood, not just a pastime.
“I was born and raised in the countryside, and at dawn, my parents would wake me up – we would go to the forest. Several times a day, back and forth. We ate, bathed, and went back to the forest. In the evenings, our entire village would smell of dried porcini mushrooms. In every yard, they were drying strung on skewers or wires. In fact, the smell of dried porcini mushrooms is still a symbol of Dzūkija to me,” recalls A. Kašėta.
The mayor hopes that participants in the annual Mushroom Picking Championship held at the festival will not be left without mushrooms – the forests are full of saffron milk caps, and porcini mushrooms, of course, grow in waves. “Since nature has not spared the rain, the forests will be full of porcini mushrooms in September,” A. Kašėta is confident.
The Mushroom Festival, which attracts thousands of visitors every year, has long become an integral part of the identity of the Varėna region. Algis Kašėta, mayor of Varėna district municipality, says this festival is one of the most important days of the year for the entire district.
“It is hard for me to imagine the Mushroom Festival without a huge bustle. People born in our region return to Varėna, guests arrive from various countries around the world, foreign ambassadors residing in Lithuania and Varėna’s partners from Ukraine, Poland, Italy, Germany traditionally participate,” says A. Kašėta.
The Mushroom Festival has grown into one of Lithuania’s most prominent regional events. Every year it attracts tens of thousands of visitors from Lithuania and abroad. Important here are not only concerts, ethnographic culture, craft fairs, or mushroom picking competitions. The festival introduces Dzūkija, tells about the human connection with the forest, preserved living traditions, and cultural heritage.
In Dzūkija, mushroom picking has never been just a hobby – for centuries, mushrooms have been and still are a way of life and an important source of livelihood for the Dzūks. That is why the mushroom has become a symbol of the Varėna region.
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The Mushroom Festival is considered one of the most unique festivals in Europe. In Italy, Spain, France, Slovenia, Estonia, Poland, mushroom festivals mostly focus on mushroom trade and gastronomic experiences. In Varėna, the main focus is on the living tradition of mushroom picking, ethnic culture, community ties, and nature appreciation.
The festival earned an international reputation thanks to guests arriving from various countries, with ambassadors from Japan, the United States, Armenia, Taiwan, and other countries residing in Lithuania traditionally participating, as well as the Lithuanian Mushroom Picking Championship, where teams from our country and abroad compete.
This year, the Lithuanian Mushroom Picking Championship was chosen to be held in one of the most beautiful places in Dzūkija – the legendary Žiūrai village, located by the Ūla River and surrounded by pine forests. The people of this village are famous not only for their mushroom picking skills but also for the tradition of Dzūkian songs passed down from generation to generation.
“Every year, the mushroom picking championship brings together dozens of teams from Lithuania and abroad. But its essence is not just to collect as many mushrooms as possible. Our event encourages getting to know Dzūkija’s nature, fostering a culture of responsible mushroom picking, and community spirit. In years when mushrooms barely grew in the forests, participants collected trash, thus contributing to the cleanliness of Lithuania’s forests,” says the championship organizer Rimutė Avižinienė.
The experienced mushroom picker says she will remember for her entire life the sight she saw during one of the mushroom picking championships: “One year in Marcinkonys, near Kastinis Lake, early in the morning, I was driving up a hill by car, and on it, I saw many small, white mushrooms. Illuminated by the lights, they seemed to start glowing and come to life. Like in a fairy tale! I will probably never forget that morning in the Mushroom Kingdom.”
It may be that this story inspired the name of this year’s Mushroom Festival. “The ‘Forest Tale’ was born from Varėna district, from our forests, inspired by the theme of people’s connection with nature, traditions, and forest legends,” says one of the festival organizers, director of the Varėna Cultural Center, Jurgita Keršienė. For the Dzūks, the forest has always been their own – it fed, protected, hid, and united people. Mushrooms have their place in Dzūkian worldview, folklore, and everyday traditions. Mushroom picking has long been surrounded by unique customs, unwritten rules, and superstitions, and the forests still guard legends about forest nymphs, grass snakes, and other mysterious beings.”
For the festival organizers, it is important that the event becomes not only a spectacle but also an experience. Visitors will be greeted by fairy tale characters and art accents in the festival spaces, and there will be courtyards of local communities where different stories, traditions, crafts, and culinary heritage of the Varėna region will unfold.
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