Press releases

MOSCOW, 10 June (BelTA) - The 24th edition of the International Festival of Arts Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk, which will be held from 9 to 13 July, will feature representatives of 39 countries, which is a record high number for the festival, festival director Alexander Sidorenko told reporters, BelTA has learned.

"This is the first time that the festival will have this number of participants. We have only 34 flagpoles near the festival venue. So we will need to install five more,” said Alexander Sidorenko.

According to him, the geography of participants has expanded mostly thanks to the song contest. This year, a significant number of foreign representatives will participate in other festival programs.

However, despite the record high number, the festival will host representatives of the countries that have already participated in the festival. According to Alexander Sidorenko, Slavonic Bazaar has had participants from 70 countries since its founding.

He also noted that once a representative of a new participating country takes part in the festival, the interest of this region to the festival increases. For example, this year Latin America shows an increased interest in the Vitebsk forum because the Grand Prix winner last year was a singer from Mexico.