ADANA, Turkey — The entire city center of Adana in the south of Turkey turned into a giant celebration space last weekend, when the seventh edition of the Orange Blossom Carnival attracted 1.5 million carnivalgoers who wore colorful costumes, danced, tasted local specialties and enjoyed the Mediterranean sun.

This is Turkey’s first and only major street carnival, which attracted more than 250,000 tourists from across Turkey and abroad for this year’s celebration. Visitors came from Istanbul, Izmir and Diyarbakir, and also Brazil, Russia and Canada.

The annual event during the first weekend of April unites performers, vendors and visitors in Adana's city center, morphing into a massive festive gathering. The central theme of the festival is the orange blossom, the event's signature fragrant flower, together with one of Adana’s most important longstanding economic resources, the bergamot tree. Bergamot, also known as bitter orange, has a powerful, dizzying scent and is the base of many oriental perfumes and its citrus fruits are considered healthy.

“When spring arrives, the scent of the orange blossoms spread across the entire city, and even the entire Mediterranean coast,” Menderes Samancilar, a well-known actor from Adana, told Al-Monitor, sitting under a canopy overlooking Seyhan Dam Lake.