Swidnik Air Festival
Świdnik-Lublin, 13 June 2026
Swidnik is not a name that pops to mind when thinking of Polish airshows, certainly not with foreign enthusiasts. Still, this was the second largest airshow in the country this year. Is it worthy of more attention?
Swidnik lies near the historic city of Lublin in eastern Poland, not all that far from the Ukrainian border. It has excellent transport connections with its own airport, right next to the airshow location, and a fast connection to Warsaw by train. The city is also blessed with a fine public transport network, which also made it very easy to reach the show, with a train station very close to the entrance. This was particularly useful at the end of the show as it allowed everyone to get out quickly, and traffic jams didn’t last for long. There were special deals with free return tickets for visitors to the show from Lublin, making public transport an attractive option.
The showground was nicely laid out with shaded areas near the catering zone, a spotters zone, VIP, static, kids zone and trading all in different parts of the terrain. Heavier participants used the runway of the international airport, while lighter aircraft and helicopters used the runway of the civilian airfield. Before the show started, some participants re-located from the airport, where they were hangered for the night, to the civilian airfield, a very short hop.
The soundsystem was impressive with commentary exclusively in Polish, which is hardly surprising given the lack of foreign interest. That did lead to some confusion with anyone who didn’t understand Polish (just one or more people?) when the show finished early due to inclement weather passing over the airfield shortly after. The forecast for the show was less than promising but fortunately, it proved wrong for the most part. There was some persistent cloud but all but the final two acts were able to perform. The show also saw some limited cancellations, but this didn’t detract from what was an excellent line-up.
The main focus of the event is the sunset and night part, with the display starting at 15:00 in the afternoon and running all the way to past 22:00. Gates opened at 14:00, which meant that there was only very limited time to find a suitable spot with the large queues at the entrance for security check and ticket verification.
The sunset airshow did differ from some other events of the sort with a striking absence of ground pyrotechnics. The only fireworks came from the aircraft in the sky.
Another remarkable feature was the combining of airshow acts in the sky. Besides this, the programme did maintain a high pace for the most part with the next act taking off while the previous was still performing its display. Having said that, there were some lengthy gaps due to scheduled airport operations when airliners were landing or taking off from Lublin international airport.
The variety of acts was excellent, including quite a few classic jets, some formation aerobatics, helicopters, motorgliders, warbirds and unlimited aerobatics. The growth of the Polish airshow scene and increasing numbers of Polish acts certainly help this.
All in all, if you never considered this show, perhaps it should be on your watchlist in the future, as it is easily combined with a weekend in the very attractive city of Lublin. The show takes place every 2 years, so you’ll have another chance in 2028.
