May 30, 2026 12:28 PM EDT
Vilnius, LITHUANIA (AP) — A festival honoring Lithuania's iconic cold beet soup brought tens of thousands of visitors Saturday to its capital city, which was fully decked out in pink.
The colorful three-day Vilnius Pink Soup Fest featured a synchronized "Pink Break" lunch of revelers from across the globe all sharing in the beet soup, known as šaltibarščiai, sitting at long tables. Organizers estimated that more than three metric tons (6,614 lbs) of the fermented milk drink kefir, a key ingredient, would be consumed over the three days and more than 100,000 people would attend the event.
Lithuanians devour the refreshing soup during the Baltic country's short summer. Beside beets and kefir, the ingredients include boiled potatoes, eggs, cucumbers and dill.
The festival attracted an international crowd, including tourist Connor Holmes, who came from the United Kingdom after he found the event online and thought "it was completely ridiculous in the best possible way."
