Half a million visitors, 15 exhibitions, 27 concerts and 5 conferences on Polish history, music, film, theatre and literature – this is the balance sheet of the first three months of Polska! Year.

Polska Year! is a unique festival of Polish culture and the arts currently on in the United Kingdom.

Katarzyna Kacprzak of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, the main organizer of the festival on the Polish side, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that the exhibition Symbolism in Poland and Britain at the Tate Britain gallery in London has attracted around 400,000 visitors.

The first ever exhibition of Polish art at that prestigious venue, features works by the most prominent Polish painters of the turn of the nineteenth century - Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, Jacek Malczewski - alongside works by British artists of the same period.

Over 1000 people filled Canterbury Cathedral and gave a twenty minute-long standing ovation to Krzysztof Penderecki after the performance of his St Luke Passion, with the composer himself conducting the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Polish soloists and three choirs from Poland.

The events of Polska! Year are held in 26 cities across the U.K. The honorary patrons of the festival are Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński. (mk/pg)