Press releases

Slavianski Bazaar 2022: Circus overture, mounted patrols, two Grand Prix titles for Belarusians

MINSK, 11 July (BelTA) – With just five days remaining until the jubilee 35th International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk, BelTA offers a journey into the past. Each day, we look back through archival materials to recall the brightest moments of every festival, year by year. Today, we turn to the 2022 edition.

The 31st International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk took place on 13-18 July. The central theme of all events was the Year of Historical Memory. The forum featured many new projects that later became permanent parts of the festival program.

The large-scale show Circus Extravaganza, which served as the festival’s overture, transformed the stage of the Summer Amphitheatre into a circus ring on 13 July, where artists of the Belarusian State Circus performed their breathtaking acts. The orchestra provided musical accompaniment.

At the opening gala concert on 14 July, a special award of the President of the Republic of Belarus Through Art To Peace and Mutual Understanding was presented to Anatoly Yarmolenko, leader of the ensemble Syabry. Awards of the Union State in literature and art for 2021-2022 were also presented. From the stage, Aleksandr Lukashenko thanked everyone who stood at the origins of the festival, continued organizing it for many years, and shared their creativity with people. “Together we have truly created a large-scale world-class project that unites nations and cultures, demonstrates our shared historical choice and our national dignity,” he said.

Also on 14 July, BelTA and the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War presented the project Fates Folded into a Triangle in Vitebsk. The thematic exhibition was set up on the Alley of Military Glory in Victory Park and featured 18 stories of frontline soldiers, a collection of scanned wartime letters.

The musical competitions brought together performers from nearly 30 countries. For participants of the 31st International Pop Song Performers Contest, the organizers prepared a surprise: the draw took place in the indoor football arena of the Vitebsk Central Sports Complex. The 20th International Children’s Music Contest also introduced a novelty: for the first time, a special prize named after People’s Artist of the USSR Igor Luchenok For Preserving Traditions in Pop Art was awarded. The Grand Prix went to Belarusian contestant Yelisey Kasich.

The Union State Days at Slavianski Bazaar were held in an expanded format for the first time. In addition to the main concert at the Summer Amphitheatre on 15 July, three new projects were presented: an opera concert featuring leading soloists of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus and Russian opera stages; an open-air celebration of folk music and culture with traditional ensembles; and performances by laureates and Grand Prix winners of vocal competitions from different years.

Youth Day also took place in a new format: activities were spread across the entire city. The culmination was the patriotic march Belarus Remembers. The main venue was the area near the Vitebsk Concert Hall, where winners of the Press Code young journalists’ contest were awarded. More than 800 participants joined the open dialogue 100 Questions from Youth, held at the football arena. The Stud Proekt networking intensive for students, DJ sets on Svoboda Square, the festival open‑air Summer Rhythms, and a youth show with pyrotechnic effects at the gala concert completed the program.

A joint creative laboratory was established for the first time together with the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) on the basis of the Yakub Kolas National Academic Drama Theatre. The stage hosted repertoire performances from various theatres of Belarus and Russia. GITIS instructors held master classes in stage speech and movement. As a result of the laboratory, future actors prepared theatrical sketches based on Chekhov’s play Three Sisters under the guidance of master teachers.

The central exhibition venues of the Regional Museum of Local Lore attracted attention during Slavianski Bazaar with a new program combining traditional and modern presentation formats. Exhibitions of the Union State invited guests and residents of the city to Walks with Pushkin and showed Lev Tolstoy through the eyes of Repin. The festival capital also featured an exhibition of Flemish and Dutch graphics from the late 17th to 19th centuries, provided by a private collector. Its core included works by Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh. Another striking event was the exhibition Samovars from Around the World.

At the traditional Puppet Quarter, artists from Makhachkala performed for the first time with their production of Thumbelina.

The street art festival In Seven Winds gathered around 1,000 participants from six countries: Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, India, Lithuania, and the USA.

In 2022, mounted police in uniforms of the past century patrolled the streets of festival-time Vitebsk. Traffic order was maintained by road patrol inspectors equipped with retro automobiles.

The main events of the 35th International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk will take place from 16 July through 19 July, with the first concerts already scheduled for 14 July.