When it happens
Kırkpınar is held once a year at Sarayiçi, on the edge of Edirne, in the last days of June or the first days of July. The Edirne municipality sets the exact dates each spring, and the wrestling always lands on the final Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The 665th festival is expected in early July 2026, with dates announced by the municipality in spring.
The number on the poster comes from the legend of 1362 and the way the years are counted, not from a list of documented tournaments. It skipped the war years and was interrupted again in 2020. Nobody in Edirne treats the count as anything but true.
Plan around the Sunday. The başpehlivan final is the last bout of the week, and if you can only come for one day, that is the day. Friday and Saturday are quieter, cheaper and better for seeing the boys' categories at close range.
See also: The field at Sarayiçi, Getting there, The final day.
The week day by day
The festival runs for seven days, and only the last three are about wrestling. The first four belong to the town: concerts in the squares, folk-dance groups from the Balkans, exhibitions at the Kırkpınar House museum, a fair on the Tunca meadows. Most visitors from abroad arrive on Thursday and miss all of it, which is a pity but not a mistake.
Monday to Thursday
The opening ceremony is on Monday, usually in front of the municipality building, with the ağa of the year presented to the town. Tuesday and Wednesday carry the concerts and the cultural program. On Thursday the wrestlers arrive, register by category, and the draw for the first bouts is made.
Friday
The wrestling opens on Friday morning with a visit to the graves of Adalı Halil and Kara Emin, two head wrestlers of the 1900s, in the old cemetery. From there the procession goes to the Selimiye Mosque for the reading of a mevlit, and then to Sarayiçi. The first bouts, in the smallest categories, start in the early afternoon.
Saturday and Sunday
Saturday belongs to the middle categories and to the first rounds of başaltı and baş, the two top classes. Sunday runs the upper half of the bracket, the semifinals and the final, and the prize ceremony. That is when the golden belt is handed over, in front of the ağa.
The field empties by dark and Edirne goes back to being a quiet border town.
The town gets four days. The wrestlers get three. The başpehlivan gets forty minutes.
The ağa
Every festival has a patron, the Kırkpınar ağası. The office is older than the municipality, older than the Republic, and it began as a plain fact of country life: someone had to feed a thousand wrestlers and pay for the prizes. In the Ottoman centuries that was a local landowner, and the history of the festival is partly a list of the men who paid for it.
The ağa is chosen by open auction at the closing ceremony of the previous year. Bidders are usually businessmen from Edirne or from the wider Thrace region, and the winning bid, which has run into millions of lira in recent years, goes to the municipality's festival budget. The title carries no legal power and a great deal of local standing.
On the wrestling days the ağa enters the field first, behind the davul and zurna, wearing a dark suit and the red sash of the office.
The cazgır greets him by name and the wrestlers salute him during the peşrev. On Sunday the winning başpehlivan takes the belt from his hands. Murat Şener, ağa for three years from 1950, is the example everybody in Edirne cites.
See also: Golden belts kept for life, What the salaşpur stands were.
Tickets and seating
The Sarayiçi field has permanent concrete stands on all four sides, built after the 1985 reconstruction that replaced the old reed stands. Entry on the three wrestling days is by ticket, sold through the municipality's ticket outlet and at the gates while seats last.
Prices are set each year and are modest by European standards; Sunday costs more than Friday. Children pay less, and the boys' bouts on Friday are often free to enter.
Seats are not numbered in most sections. Arrive before noon on Sunday if you want the shaded western stand, which faces the afternoon sun from behind. The eastern stand is cheaper, hotter and closer to the oiling caldrons, which is where the photographers go.
The protocol stand, in the middle of the long side, holds the ağa, the governor, federation officials and whoever came from Ankara that year. It is not for sale. Everything else is, and nothing on the field is hidden from any seat.
What you will see on the field
The Er Meydanı, the field of men, is a grass rectangle the size of two football pitches. Bouts run in parallel, ten or more at a time in the lower categories, and the referees move between them on foot. Only on Sunday afternoon does the field narrow to one bout.
Along one edge stand the copper caldrons of olive oil and water where wrestlers cover themselves before each bout. The oiling is a ritual as much as a preparation, and the olive oil is bought by the ton. Between bouts the cazgır, the announcer, calls the next pair in rhymed prayer, and the pairs walk out together to perform the peşrev, the slow salute that opens every bout.
The davul and zurna, a bass drum and a shawm, play from morning to dusk. The music has no score and no break; when one pair of players tires, another takes over. It is the sound that visitors remember longest.
In the stands, vendors move through the aisles with tea in tulip glasses, ayran in cups, badem ezmesi, the almond paste Edirne is known for, and boxes of lokum. Turkish delight in the stands and baklava in the town's pastry shops are how Edirne sweetens a hot afternoon; the food section of the Edirne guide has the rest. Bring cash, because nobody in the aisles takes cards.
See also: The kispet, Zembil and the red candle, Fouls and what is allowed.
Watching on television
The final three days are broadcast live on Turkish national television, and the Sunday final regularly draws the largest domestic audience of any non-football event in the year. The municipality and the broadcaster usually stream the feed online as well, without geographic restrictions, though this changes from year to year.
Commentary is in Turkish and assumes you know the categories. It also assumes you know the names of the wrestlers, which takes a season or two. This site is the English companion: keep the rules page open on Sunday afternoon and the bouts will make sense within ten minutes.
Highlights appear on the federation's and the municipality's channels the same evening. Full bouts from earlier years, including Ahmet Taşçı's eight title runs of the 1990s, circulate online and are the best preparation for a first visit.
Planning your visit
Edirne in July is hot, dry and bright. Sarayiçi has little shade outside the western stand, so bring a hat, sunscreen and more water than you think you need; vendors sell water, but the queues on Sunday are long. The wrestling starts in the early afternoon and the final can run past seven, so a full day in the stands is eight hours.
Stay in town rather than at the field. Edirne has hotels in the old center within walking distance of Selimiye, and the where to stay section explains the types and how far ahead to book; for the festival weekend that is months, not weeks. From the center, Sarayiçi is a thirty-minute walk along the Tunca or a short taxi ride.
If you are coming from Istanbul, the 230-kilometer road takes two and a half to three hours by bus. Day-tripping for the Sunday final is possible but exhausting; two nights is the sensible minimum, and a third lets you see the Selimiye Mosque and the old town in peace on Monday.
What to know before the first bout
Read how a bout is won once; it is short. The time limits take another minute.
Learn the words kispet, cazgır and peşrev from the glossary so the announcements make sense. And know that the master and apprentice pairs you see oiling each other are not opponents but teacher and student.
The rest you will pick up from the stands. Edirne has been watching this for six and a half centuries, and the story of how it began is told to every visitor who asks.
The UNESCO listing of 2010 changed nothing on the field, and neither did television. What changed is the crowd, which now arrives from Istanbul, Sofia and Thessaloniki as well as from the villages of Thrace. The ağa still pays, the caldrons still steam, and the week still ends with two men and a belt.
See also: How a pehlivan eats, What to bring home from Edirne, Who writes this site.
Questions
When is Kırkpınar 2026?
The 665th Kırkpınar is expected in early July 2026 at Sarayiçi in Edirne. The municipality announces the exact dates in spring; the wrestling always falls on the final Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the week.
Do I need a ticket?
Yes for the stands on the three wrestling days, sold through the municipality's ticket outlet. The week's concerts, processions and ceremonies in town are free.
How long is the final?
The başpehlivan bout runs up to forty minutes, with a golden-point period if nobody has won. It is the last bout on Sunday and usually ends between five and seven in the evening.
Can I watch it on television?
The final three days are broadcast live on Turkish national television, and the municipality and the broadcaster usually stream online. Commentary is in Turkish.
Is it suitable for children?
Yes. Families fill the stands, the youngest wrestlers are eleven, and the boys' categories on Friday and Saturday are the friendliest part of the program. Bring hats and water.
What is the ağa?
The patron of that year's festival, chosen by open auction at the previous year's closing ceremony. He leads the procession, pays the ceremonial costs and receives the first salute on the field.