Over three days, the festival attracted a total of 176.65 thousand visitors, of whom 33.8 thousand were guests from Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the USA, the Netherlands, and other countries. This number almost doubled last year’s result, meaning that the celebration not only continues to expand but also becomes a prominent part of Vilnius’s identity.
Over four years, the festival organized by Vilnius tourism and business development agency “Go Vilnius” has grown more than tenfold from 15 thousand participants in its first year. On this occasion, next year’s date is also announced – the jubilee fifth “Vilnius Pink Soup Fest” will traditionally take place on the last spring weekend, May 28-30.
“It can be safely said that the festival, which began a few years ago as a playful city initiative, has today become a true international phenomenon. This year, we welcomed a record number of visitors, received huge attention from foreign media, and once again confirmed that šaltibarščiai can be an excellent reason to discover Vilnius. “Vilnius Pink Soup Fest” has long ceased to be just a fun one-day event – it has become a strong symbol of the city’s tradition, a serious economic impulse for the capital’s businesses, and an excellent tourism engine,” says Dovilė Aleksandravičienė, head of “Go Vilnius”.
Preliminary data shows that the total economic value created by “Vilnius Pink Soup Fest” over three days could reach approximately 10 million euros. This means that the economic benefit of the festival is already comparable to the impact of large international conferences or sports events on the city.
Vilnius’s name resonated widely
More than 330 Vilnius venues joined the festival, including restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, museums, shops, and other city spaces – this is the largest business and community involvement in the festival’s history. In the festival area alone, Vilnius residents and city guests consumed almost 7 tons of šaltibarščiai over the weekend, or roughly enough for one person to taste daily for almost 20 years.
Among the most prominent highlights of the weekend were the pink parade along the Neris riverbank and river, and the “IKI Šaltibarščiai Walking Competition” – each attracted tens of thousands of cheerfully dressed participants, and the competition organizers distributed over 50 thousand fruits, vegetables, šaltibarščiai ingredients, and treats for pets accompanying the event participants.
“Vilnius Pink Soup Fest” also resonated widely in foreign media. More than two dozen foreign journalists, representing world news agencies, television channels, and publications, visited the festival. Over 600 publications about “Vilnius Pink Soup Fest” have already been published in foreign media online, in print, and on radio and television channels. Data from the foreign media monitoring platform “Meltwater” shows that this has potentially helped reach at least 1 billion audience worldwide to date.
Reports about the festival were prepared by international news agencies “Reuters” and “Associated Press”, German television ZDF, Polish “TVP World”, and other channels. Representatives from BBC, “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, “National Geographic”, and major Polish portals “Onet” and “Wirtualna Polska” also participated in the celebration. In the neighboring media, the šaltibarščiai train received special attention, becoming one of the most widely discussed festival initiatives.
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To the capital – specifically for šaltibarščiai
“It is particularly gratifying that the festival receives such widespread organic attention in foreign media and social networks. Vilnius is increasingly presented as a creative, unexpected city with a sense of humor, and šaltibarščiai have become an excellent symbol of all this,” says D. Aleksandravičienė.
She notes that “Vilnius Pink Soup Fest” has long transcended the boundaries of a mere gastronomic event. It is a festival that creates positive emotions, engages and colors the entire city, and becomes an important reason for foreign tourists to discover Vilnius and visit Lithuania.
This is confirmed by the insights of foreign guests who joined the pink frenzy. For example, Angus, who came from Hampshire in the United Kingdom, said that he had been thinking about visiting the Lithuanian capital for several years, and “Vilnius Pink Soup Fest” became the final push to finally buy plane tickets.
“When I heard about a festival dedicated to bright pink soup, I realized it was a great pretext to finally come. I could have shown up dressed normally or dressed as soup – it’s obvious which option was more fun,” laughed Angus, who was most impressed by how the entire city and its residents get involved in this festival.
Even world-renowned celebrities noticed the pink frenzy that enveloped Vilnius. Scottish music star Lewis Capaldi, who performed in the capital that same weekend, joked from the stage that if he had known such a festival was happening here, he certainly wouldn’t have chosen black for his stage outfit.
The organizers of “Vilnius Pink Soup Fest” promise that next year the festival will be even more spectacular, and the five-year anniversary will be an excellent opportunity to further expand the celebration program and surprise both Vilnius residents and city guests.
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