5 Best Wroclaw Festivals to Plan Around
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Wroclaw’s festival calendar peaks twice: a summer run from July through September that lines up with the best weather, and a December Christmas market that’s worth braving the cold for. Book accommodation earlier than usual if your trip lands on any of the 5 below, hotel rates in the Old Town climb noticeably during each one. Check rates on Booking.com well ahead of any of these dates.
5 festivals at a glance
| Festival | When | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| New Horizons Film Festival | End of July | Poland’s biggest arthouse/avant-garde film festival, founded 2001 |
| Wratislavia Cantans | September | Choral and classical-vocal festival founded 1966, across ~30 towns |
| Jazz nad Odra | Dates vary (verify) | Long-running Wroclaw jazz festival |
| Wroclaw Good Beer Festival | Dates vary (verify) | Craft-beer festival, scale and dates change year to year |
| Rynek Christmas Market | Late November-December (verify exact dates) | One of Poland’s best-known Christmas markets |
New Horizons Film Festival, late July
Founded in 2001, New Horizons (T-Mobile Nowe Horyzonty) is billed as Poland’s biggest and most popular film festival, specializing in avant-garde and arthouse cinema, it’s held FIAPF-accredited “avant-garde status” competitive status since 2008. A recent edition screened 283 films from 92 countries, expect the Old Town to be busy and cinema tickets to move fast if you’re planning around it.
Wratislavia Cantans, September
This choral and classical-vocal festival was founded in 1966 by composer-conductor Andrzej Markowski and runs every September across Wroclaw and roughly 30 towns in Lower Silesia and Wielkopolska. It’s been a member of the European Festivals Association since 1978, and Giovanni Antonini has served as artistic director since 2013, a genuinely international-caliber program, not a local curiosity.
Is September a good time to visit Wroclaw generally?
Yes, arguably the best single month: Wratislavia Cantans overlaps with pleasant shoulder-season weather and thinner crowds than peak summer, before the December cold sets in.
Jazz nad Odra and the Good Beer Festival
Jazz nad Odra is a long-running local jazz festival (verify current dates before planning around it), and the Wroclaw Good Beer Festival taps into the city’s growing craft-beer scene (verify dates and scale each year, these smaller festivals shift more than the two majors above). Both are worth checking the local events calendar for if your visit overlaps.
The Rynek Christmas Market
Running roughly late November through December (verify exact dates each year), the Rynek Christmas Market is one of Poland’s best-known, with stalls, ice-skating and grzane wino (mulled wine) filling the square. Winters here run cold, roughly -2 to 3 degrees Celsius, and occasional coal-heating smog on stagnant days, so pack real layers if this is your reason for visiting.
One concrete tip: if New Horizons or Wratislavia Cantans overlaps your dates, book your Old Town hotel the moment you fix your travel dates, not after. Both draw enough of a crowd that centrally located rooms sell out weeks ahead. For a day-by-day plan around either festival, see our Wroclaw travel guide or the 3-day itinerary .