For decades, international beauty pageants have been synonymous with two names: Miss Universe and Miss World. However on Friday night, another event competing for global eyeballs and social media shockwaves will crown its winner in southern Poland.
Still relatively unknown outside beauty pageant circles, Miss Supranational has quietly grown into one of the industry's biggest international contests, welcoming contestants from more than 60 countries and building a reputation that is increasingly attracting national pageant organisations looking beyond the traditional "Big Two".
A little Polish town in the global spotlight
Founded in 2009, Miss Supranational is the flagship international event of Poland's annual Festival of Beauty (Festiwal Piękna), a three-day celebration of pageantry that also hosts the finals of Mister Supranational and Miss Poland. Each summer, the festival transforms the southern town of Nowy Sącz, a town of around 80,000 inhabitants in the south of Poland.
For one evening every summer, this normally quiet town becomes the centre of the international pageant world, hosting delegates from across five continents, international broadcasters and millions of online viewers following the competition on YouTube and television. The pageant has become one of Nowy Sącz's most visible international cultural events, helping put the town on the global map.
