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Popular festival · Kamnik
Every September, Kamnik’s old town, at the foot of the Kamnik–Savinja Alps, hosts Slovenia’s largest ethnological festival, featuring parades of traditional costumes from all regions, music, dance and handicrafts.
In the photo: Kamnik
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Kamnik Traditional Costume Days — Kamnik
On a weekend in early to mid-September, usually Friday through Sunday, with the big parade on Sunday.
September
Dates change every year: check this year's date before you travel.
The festival
Kamnik is one of Slovenia’s oldest medieval towns, about twenty kilometers from Ljubljana, at the foot of the Kamnik–Savinja Alps. Every September its old town fills with people wearing traditional costumes for a festival regarded as the country’s largest ethnological event.
The celebration began in the 1960s, when local residents organized a traditional costume day, and over time it grew and changed names until reaching the current form. Today it is organized by the city’s tourism and sports office and is part of the CIOFF international folklore festival network.
Slovenian traditional costumes vary by region: those from Upper Carniola, with embroidered white kerchiefs and vests; costumes from the eastern regions; coastal costumes; those of minorities; and both work and festive outfits from different eras. During the festival days the town centre hosts exhibitions on traditional dress, performances by folklore groups, music, an accordion competition and a market of handicrafts and local products.
The highlight is the Sunday parade through the old town, with hundreds of people in costumes from various Slovenian regions and neighboring countries, folklore groups, brass bands and horse-drawn carts.
It’s worth the trip to see in a single afternoon the variety of Slovenian traditional dress in a small historic centre, and you can combine the visit with Ljubljana or with a hike up to Velika Planina, the shepherds’ plateau above Kamnik.
The big traditional costume parade on Sunday afternoon through the old town. Folklore group performances in the squares. The accordion competition. Exhibitions about traditional dress and the handicraft market. A climb to Mali grad, the hill with the Romanesque chapel above the town centre.
Choose Sunday, the day of the parade, and secure a spot in advance on the main street of the old town. The town is best explored on foot. Kamnik is served by train and bus from Ljubljana; if you drive, leave your vehicle in parking lots on the outskirts of the centre. In September the days are usually mild, but rain is possible.
Dishes and sweets from Upper Carniola at the food stalls, such as kranjske klobase (regional sausages) and potica, a nut-filled roulade. In Kamnik, also try the traditional sweets sold at the market.
Check the year’s program on Kamnik tourism’s website. Kamnik is about half an hour from Ljubljana, which can serve as a base; book accommodation in advance if you plan to stay overnight in the town.
In the city
September
June/July/August/SeptemberDuring the summer, from June or July until the beginning of September.
Created in 1953, the Ljubljana Festival fills the capital’s summer with opera, ballet, symphony concerts, theater and folk music, in the Križanke courtyard, the former monastery remodeled by Jože Plečnik, and at Kongresni trg square.
SeptemberOn the third Sunday of September.
On the third Sunday of September, Bohinj celebrates the return of the shepherds and their cattle from the high mountain pastures: the cows descend, decorated with flowers, to the meadow at Ukanc on the western tip of Lake Bohinj, in a festival with music, dancing and regional food.
September/OctoberOn a Sunday in late September or early October, when the grapes are ripe, after a few days of wine festivities in the Lent neighborhood.
Every early autumn, Maribor publicly harvests the grapes of the Stara trta, the more-than-400-year-old vine that grows on the facade of a house in the Lent neighborhood, concluding days of celebrations with Styrian wines and dishes by the Drava River.
Your questions
On a weekend in early to mid-September, usually Friday through Sunday. The big parade takes place on Sunday afternoon.
About twenty kilometers from Ljubljana, at the foot of the Kamnik–Savinja Alps, with train and bus connections from the capital.
The parade brings together registered groups and individuals in traditional costumes. If you wish to participate, you should contact the organizers in advance.
Festivals and events in Slovenia
February/MarchOn the days before Lent, in February or March depending on the date of Easter, ending on Shrove Tuesday. The duration varies according to the program.
Slovenia’s largest carnival takes over Ptuj’s old town: the kurenti, figures dressed in sheepskins with horned or feathered masks and large bells at the waist, parade alongside other traditional regional characters to drive away winter.
February/MarchOn the Sunday and Tuesday of Carnival, which fall between early February and early March according to the Easter calendar; the laufarji begin to appear in the streets on the preceding Sundays.
In Cerkno, in the hills of western Slovenia, the laufarji—figures wearing carved wooden masks—parade through town at Carnival and stage the trial and execution of the Pust, the moss-covered figure who carries the year’s misfortunes.
MarchIn March, from Thursday to Sunday, at the event that closes the Ski Jumping World Cup season.
Every March, the Planica valley, near Kranjska Gora, hosts the final stage of the Ski Jumping World Cup, held on the Gorišek Brothers’ flying hill, one of the largest in the world.
AprilOn a weekend in April, usually after Easter and before the May 1 public holiday.
For a weekend in April, the old town of Radovljica, near Bled, turns into a large chocolate showcase, with producers from across the country, tastings, workshops and demonstrations at Linhartov trg square and the town manor.
May/JuneFor about two weeks, from late May to early June, during the flowering season of Bohinj’s meadows.
In late spring, Bohinj, in the heart of Triglav National Park, devotes two weeks to the flowers of the Julian Alps, with guided botanical walks, exhibitions, workshops, and restaurant menus featuring wild plants from the valley.
JuneOn the third weekend of June, from Friday to Sunday.
On the third weekend of June, Idrija, the former mining town in western Slovenia, celebrates bobbin lace with exhibitions, fashion shows, workshops and the national contest for young lacemakers in the main square.