A twenty-seven-meter-high decoration that was brought to the Lipnica market square by several men was the undisputed favorite of this year's competition for the tallest and most beautiful Easter palm.
It was done by Andrzej Goryl from Lipnica Górna, who also won the competition last year. At that time, his palm was 27.63 m high, he said to Radio RDN.
Easter palms at the competition in Lipnica
Easter palms, photo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jt9iE-oRaY
– To build such a large palm tree, there must be a pole in its center. It has to be cut down in the forest, processed nicely and then it has to lie there for about a year to dry out sufficiently. For this you need wicker, I cut about 500 kilograms of it this year. There are about 800 flowers in this palm. My sister started preparing them before Ash Wednesday, and just making such a palm takes about 2 weeks of quiet work in the evenings.
This result means that the competition record was over ten meters short of being broken this year. The current record for the height of the palm is 37 meters and 78 centimeters, and it belongs to Andrzej Goryl as well.
As the record holder says, in order to beat this result, the weather must help, which was not favorable this year.
– My expectations this year were completely different, because the palm tree was supposed to be bigger, but the weather was playing tricks on us. I finished making this palm tree at night, the day before the competition. I had a lot of problems finishing it because the rain flooded the flowers and made everything very difficult. To make a tall palm tree, you also need good quality wicker. When it's a nice year and the conditions are favorable, the wicker is also of good quality, but when the weather is bad, it spins a lot and is difficult to place on the pole.
However, Andrzej Goryl announces that he will fight to set a new record in the future.
Making such a large Easter palm is demanding because the competition rules indicate that it must be made only from natural raw materials and no metal elements can be used to create it.
What's more, only by standing the palm upright will it be able to take part in the competition. This is the most difficult task because only human muscle power can be used. You can use ropes and special forks, but not e.g. mechanical winches and cranes.
Comentarios