The first international festival of hunting horn music and songs Tsar Meadow in Belovezhskaya Pushcha

On 14-15 May the international festival of hunting horn music and songs Tsar Meadow took place for the first time in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, one of the world’s oldest nature reserves, which history goes back for more than 600 years. The location was not accidental since in the past the local Tsar Meadow was the place for hunting tournaments and the birthplace of horn music. Back in the 15th century the prominent Belarusian poet Nikolai Gusovsky described a unique system of horn signals in his poem Song About the Bison. The system allowed hunters to communicate over great distances.

Held in the very heart of the country’s largest national park, the debut festival of hunting horn music gathered 25 soloists and collectives from Belarus and Poland. In addition to melodious songs about nature they performed joke melodies about hunting and demonstrated their virtuoso mastery of the hunting horn. Apart from that, guests of the festival were invited to see an exhibition of hunting dogs, a stand shooting competition, a contest for the best dish made of collected trophies, an exhibition of handicrafts, and a concert of Belarusian medieval music.

Photo: Ekaterina Garaeva