Press releases

GOMEL, 23 June (BelTA) – Over 900 artists will take part in the 9^th edition of the nationwide folk art festival Beraginya which is to kick off in Oktyabrsky District, Gomel Oblast on 23 June, BelTA learnt from the Oktyabsky District Executive Committee.

The event will open with a concert, We Welcome the Festival, in a park of the village of Oktyabrsky. Partaking in the concert will be foreign bands from Serbia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Lithuania and Ukraine.

Participants of the festival, which will last through 26 June, will take part in numerous competitions, including contests among performers of Belarusian folk and traditional dances and a children’s folk tournament.

The traditional festival Rudobelskoye Kupalye will take place on Saturday, 25 June. On 26 June the guests of the Beraginya festival will take part in the opening ceremony of the arts and crafts fair Rudobelskaya Yarmarka. The program of the fair will include a concert of national and foreign folk bands, master classes in folk songs, dances, music and entertainment shows, medieval reenactment featuring the Mozyr reenactment club Shatun.

Held since 1998 the national folk art festival Beraginya is aimed at supporting popular art, preserving regional and local art culture, discovering new folk bands. The major objective of the festival is to highlight the issues related to the education of the new generation through the means of traditional folk art. Beraginya is a unique festival which has become an important event in the cultural life of Belarus. Among the organizers of the folklore forum is the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee and the Oktyabrsky District Executive Committee. The festival will be held in cooperation with the Culture Ministry of Belarus and under the patronage of the UNESCO.