An inaugural event, hosted by the Polish community in the Highlands to celebrate their culture and heritage, will take place in Inverness on Saturday.
The family day will be held at Clachnacuddin Football Club between 11am and 4pm and will celebrate openness, appreciation and better understanding between the region’s native and Polish communities.
Event organiser, Zosia Wierzbowicz-Fraser, who is co-founder and chairwoman of the Inverness Polish Association, said everybody was welcome.
The project is part of the Polish Heritage Day initiative by the Polish Embassy in London along with over 40 events planned across the UK and supported by the Polish Consulates in London, Manchester, and Edinburgh.
The idea is to organise a wide range of events promoting the country during the first weekend after Poland’s Constitution Day – May 3.
And it is hoped that the festival can feature annually in the Highland capital’s calendar.
Polish and Scottish food will be served during the day and crowds will be able to enjoy a Scotland v Poland football match, a pipe band, barbecue, bouncy castle and face painting.
The Polish community is a mixture of the descendants of those wartime and anti-communist exiles and those who decided to move to Britain after Poland joined the EU in 2004.
Polish nationals are now the largest minority in the UK, estimated at 984,000. Poles have opened 30,000 businesses in the UK , and pride themselves on having the highest rate of individuals in employment or higher education among ethnic groups in Britain – 92%.
A number of city councils across the country have already expressed their support for the new project by offering patronage and raising the white-and-red flags on town halls during the festival as a gesture of openness and symbol of friendship.
A virtual map of planned events can be discovered at the Polish Embassy’s website.
For more information about the event, please visit www.polness.org.uk and follow on Facebook -Events or follow #PLHeritageDay on social media.
