Two professional Sri Lankan chefs from the Colombo Hilton traveled to Warsaw to prepare authentic Sri Lankan cuisine for the festival, providing an opportunity for the food lovers to taste foods such as hoppers, kottu roti, curries, coconut sambol and watalappan.

The colourful cultural program began with traditional dances led by the members of the Pradeep Shastra Performing Art of Sri Lanka in Italy who performed splendidly to the melody of Sri Lankan drums and traditional music.

The festival commenced with a press luncheon at the MEZA Restaurant. Many guests were in attendance, including leading Polish press and VIPs. The luncheon officially opened the festival to the public and publicized Sri Lanka’s food festival in Poland. The unique culinary evening was hosted by the Embassy of Sri Lanka. Over 100 guests were in attendance, including Polish Government officials, entrepreneurs, travel leaders and travel journalists.

In organizing these events, the Embassy of Sri Lanka promoted Sri Lankan food and culture in a bid to strengthen bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and Poland, and presented Sri Lanka as a key tourist destination. In 2016, Polish tourist arrivals had increased by approximately 20% as compared to the previous year due to tourism promotional initiatives of this nature. A significant increase in the number of Polish tourists coming to Sri Lanka is expected in 2017.