Warsaw's 18th Urban Festival Puts Food at the Heart of City Planning
For one month this autumn, Warsaw is treating food not as a lifestyle topic but as a question of urban infrastructure. The 18th edition of Warsaw Under Construction, organised by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, runs from 30 August to 27 September and focuses on food sovereignty, local agriculture, and the ties between the capital and the Mazovian countryside that surrounds it.
The programme spans exhibitions, guided walks, river trips, workshops, public discussions, and community events spread across Warsaw and the wider region. It is one of the more ambitious framings of the food-systems conversation to appear in a Central European festival calendar in recent years.
Opening Day: A Harvest Gathering on a Working Farm
The festival opens not in a gallery but at the MOST Cooperative Farm on Gwintowa Street in the Siekierki district, running from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 30 August. Admission is free. Visitors can tour the farm, meet the people who work it, and share food prepared from the season's harvest.
Two site-specific art projects accompany the opening. Artist Jan Sajdak presents a sculptural group called Blades of Grass, and artist Gosia Kępa introduces a land-art installation titled Soil Profile, also leading a hands-on workshop on making soil profiles. The afternoon closes with a performance by Urzeczeni, a musical project rooted in the traditional culture of the Urzecze microregion south of Warsaw.
The choice of a functioning cooperative farm as the starting point is deliberate. It grounds the festival's argument in soil and seasonal labour before the programme moves into museums, markets, orchards, and distribution sites.
A Food Map of the Capital and Its Region
The Urzecze microregion, whose villages and riverine landscapes have supplied Warsaw with vegetables, fruit, honey, dairy, and fish for generations, is a recurring reference throughout the programme. Guided visits will take participants to orchards in Żoliborz, the Egipska market in Saska Kępa, the Zbiory food shop in Mokotów, and the Bronisze wholesale market west of the city.
A public conversation on 3 September will examine how Warsaw might draw on local agricultural infrastructure, cooperative models, and contemporary technology when planning its food future. Later events address the role of neighbourhood shops and distribution networks in building more resilient cities.
Polish Radio, which covered the festival programme, highlighted the decision to use the city and the Mazovia region as the festival's setting rather than confining events to a single institution. The details reported here were first published by The Baltic Review.
Food Sovereignty as Urban Strategy
The organisers are careful not to claim that Warsaw could or should produce everything it consumes. Their argument is narrower and more practical: local food networks add resilience, agricultural land around cities deserves protection, and residents benefit from understanding supply chains that are usually invisible to them. Soil, water, biodiversity, land use, and transport all shape how food reaches the table, and all of them are legitimate subjects for urban policy.
This framing gives the festival an environmental dimension without reducing it to climate messaging, and a cultural dimension that connects seasonal rituals, traditional recipes, and the relationships between urban residents and rural producers.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Independent accommodation and hospitality operators in Warsaw have a concrete opportunity here. The festival's guided visits to markets, farms, and food shops give guests a ready-made itinerary that goes well beyond standard sightseeing. Hosts who know the Egipska market in Saska Kępa, the Zbiory shop in Mokotów, or the Bronisze wholesale market can point guests toward experiences that connect directly to the festival's themes. Stocking or recommending locally sourced produce from the Mazovian suppliers the festival spotlights is a small step that reinforces the same story and gives guests something genuine to talk about.
First reported by baltic-review.com.