Press releases

VITEBSK, 15 April (BelTA) – We have never received so many applications for participation in the song contests of the International Festival of Arts Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk as we did this year, and we expect to see the high level of the contestants, the head of the directorate of the International Festival of Arts Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk, the Director of the Vitebsk Culture Center Alexander Sidorenko told a press conference on 15 April, BelTA has learned.

The full list of contestants (21 in adult and in junior song contests) will be announced in the coming days. All in all, 420 persons (227 young performers and 202 children) took part in 12 national qualifying rounds. The entries were already named by Belarus, Bulgaria, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia.

The organizers received the applications from the artists themselves. Thus the festival organizers selected the singers from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Italy, Malta, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Croatia, Montenegro, and Czech Republic. Preliminary talks were held with the contestants from Germany, China, Slovakia, the United States, Finland, and Japan.

As was reported, Polad Bulbuloglu, a singer, composer, People's Artist of Azerbaijan, will lead the jury of the International Song Contest Vitebsk 2015. The jury of the children’s song contest will be headed by Russian singer and composer, People’s Artist of Russia Dmitry Malikov.

The contest events, like last year, will be held in three stages: semifinal, the first and second day of the final. The semifinal will be held in the Vitebsk concert hall (formerly it was held in the Vitebsk Philharmonic). The directors of the contest and TV producers will work on the program to make it spectacular not only for the people in the hall but for the television audience.

Every stage of the contest will feature a full concert with the broadcast: the semifinal “National hit” (popular songs of the contestants in the languages of their countries); the first day of the final Slavonic Hit (popular songs of the Slavonic authors on Slavonic languages accompanied by an orchestra); the second day of the final Festival Hit (songs of the international repertoire chosen by the contestant).

The children's song contest will be held in the Vitebsk Concert Hall. The venue will be designed taking account the television broadcast of the two competition days and a gala concert.

An awards ceremony will be included in the program of the closing gala of the festival, during which the members of the jury and pop stars will award the contestants.

The 24th edition of the International Festival of Arts Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk will be held from 9 to 13 July (additional activities are planned for 7-8 and 14-15 July). This year the festival will be themed around major events in Belarus: the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory and the Year of Youth.