8/10/2016 SOUP FESTIVAL

Forty-four teams with their soups participated at Soup Festival 2016 in Košice. Our Erasmus students were not an exception and they offered their traditional soups too: French students cooked „Soupe au pistou“ and the Turkish team prepared „Şehriye çorbası“. This festival was not only about tasting the soups, but also about exploring different cultures.

The morning of 8th October 2016, when the soup festival took place, was really sunny and it made a perception that after two weeks of cold rainy weather we will have finally a nice day. However, as far as the time was approaching the 2 p.m. when the soup festival was due to start, more and more clouds were appearing on the sky. But it doesn’t stop crowds of people to come and discover new tastes and cultures in Kasárne Kulturpark, traditional place of soup festival in Košice. Different cultures and teams in Košice who cooked their soups wanted to present their communities. Consequently, we witnessed the teams like Polish community, Mongolian community, Slovak catholic charity and many others, also with our two teams of French and Turkish Erasmus students. Participants competed with their soups in different competitions: Golden Spoon for the best soup awarded from the jury, Best soup chosen by visitors, The most beautifully decorated stand or The best soup in online voting. Surprisingly, our French Erasmus team won the first place in online voting for the best soup, which was at least a small reward for the work the put in the preparation for the festival.

To sum up, we are happy that also thanks to this cultural activity we could promote the Erasmus student mobility. Because not only loads of hot soups, but also nicely decorated stands and traditional costumes were tempting the people to come and see how many differences are present in our quite small city Košice.

Author: Matej Tvrdoň
Photos: ESN KE