Press releases

Two Grand Prix for Kazakhstan, a street art debut: Slavianski Bazaar 2015 highlights

VITEBSK, 4 July (BelTA) – The 35th International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk is now just 12 days away. BelTA invites you to take a trip down memory lane: each day, we are drawing on archival materials to highlight the most memorable moments from every festival, year by year. Today, we look back at the 2015 edition.

The Slavianski Bazaar welcomed guests to Vitebsk for the 24th time in 2015. The main program ran from 9 through 13 July, with additional events held on 7, 8, 14 and 15 July.

The lineup for the 24th International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk included more than 90 events, 18 of which were concerts on the main festival stage, the Summer Amphitheater. The festival’s cornerstone events included the traditional opening and closing concerts, Youth Day, Union State Day, the competition rounds for young performers and solo artist concerts. Festivalgoers also had the chance to attend dozens of events under the theater program and the street art fest. In 2015, a record was set for the number of participating countries, 41, for the first time. The main themes of the 24th International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk were the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory and the Year of Youth.

For the first time in many years, the official opening took place without the head of state, though the president of Belarus did attend the closing ceremony of the festival.

The Vitebsk Concert Hall hosted an exhibition by BelTA’s lead photojournalist Aleksandr Khitrov, featuring more than 20 photographs from various years, all dedicated to the Slavianski Bazaar. At the opening of the International Press Center, he was presented with an award from the festival’s directorate, the Golden Pen, for the best media coverage of the previous, 23rd festival.

Over the years, the festival has increasingly branched out to various locations across the city. In 2015, artisans from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia brought craft, ritual, puppet, theatrical and other folk traditions to the Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk. From 9 through 13 July, they gave performances and presentations on Freedom Square. All the districts of Vitebsk Oblast made presentations at the Colors of Vitebsk Oblast celebration. There was also a regional towel festival The Towel of Destiny, the Friendship Festival, the Accordion Festival, and the closing ceremony and awards for the Zabava 2015 doll and toy making competition. In addition, three districts of Vitebsk Oblast presented signature events at the “Festivals to the Festival” celebration, including “Dnieper Voices in Dubrovno,” “The Cymbals and the Accordion Are Ringing,” and “Braslav Summer Lightning.”

In 2015, the Slavianski Bazaar hosted its first ever street art festival “On the Seven Winds” which made its debut on 10 July. Performances, a theatrical procession and shows by nativity scene troupes from various regions took place at several open venues around Vitebsk. Since then, this celebration has drawn dozens of creative groups to the pedestrian streets and squares of Vitebsk every year.

On 10 July, at the 24th International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk, audiences heard the Union State anthem “Angel Over Chagall’s City” for the first time, during the concert “The Union State Invites … Connecting Space and Time.”

Youth Courtyard, a humor festival, the Mobile Coffee House bartender competition and a 3D drawing contest were all new additions to Youth Day at the Slavianski Bazaar in 2015. A large, diverse interactive exhibition called Youth Courtyard unfolded along the alley on Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street. Numerous guests arrived from across the country, bringing their best songs, talents, goods and crafts. Each regional branch and the Minsk branch of the BRSM Youth Union set up its own pavilion, not only presenting displays of national cuisine but also offering hands‑on cooking master classes and tastings for all comers. Running alongside this interactive exhibition was the youth relay Kaleidoscope of Humor, which featured performances by creative groups, bands, solo artists, KVN teams and STEM ensembles, all tied together by a comedic theme. The final event of Youth Day at the Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk was a DJ battle.

The sensation of the music competitions came from Kazakhstan, which swept the top prizes at both the adult and junior song contests in Vitebsk in 2015. The winners were young star Luiza Nurkuatova, who competed against 20 vocalists from 17 countries, and Dimash Kudaibergen, who would go on to become a great friend of the Vitebsk festival and who faced 14 finalists in the pop song contest.

The star‑studded jury for the pop song contest was chaired by People’s Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR, Honored Art Worker of the Republic of Dagestan, Doctor of Arts and Professor Polad Bülbüloğlu, who received a special award from the president of Belarus at the festival’s closing ceremony, “Through Art to Peace and Mutual Understanding.” “On behalf of all the participants, allow me to express our enormous gratitude to you, the leader of this wonderful country, for this magnificent celebration of music and arts in Vitebsk. I sincerely and wholeheartedly thank you for this high award with its beautiful name. I see this award not as recognition of my own personal contribution, but as your gesture of attention to the development of friendly relations between Belarus and Azerbaijan,” the acclaimed artist said.

Also at the closing ceremony, addressing the winners of the music competitions, Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized: “Dear laureates, may your success at such a prestigious competition become an important stepping stone to wider recognition. I hope that one day your names, too, will adorn the beautiful Stars Square. By the way, there is plenty of room there for you, and those spots are already reserved for you. Victory in such a demanding contest is a serious statement of intent for the future. In the heat of competition, a person reveals not only the brilliance of their talent but also the strength of their character,” the head of state said. “The Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk is often called the summer cultural Olympics. It has already established itself as a place where musicians, artists, performers and art lovers come to discover new trends and creative discoveries from every corner of the globe. Here, people come to understand how much we all have in common and how much we need peace. The Vitebsk festival is taking on special significance in strengthening peace and mutual understanding between countries and peoples.”

By tradition, after the festival’s closing, the main concert venue, the Summer Amphitheater, was taken over by chanson performers, who filled the hall to capacity on 14 July. The final event of the festival’s Theater Encounters program that same day was a performance by Moscow’s Nikitsky Gate Theater, with Russian actors presenting “Songs of Our Communal Apartment” on the stage of the Vitebsk Concert Hall. The festival program wrapped up on 15 July with a Rock Panorama concert in the Summer Amphitheater.

The main program of the 35th International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk will run from 16 through 19 July, with the first concerts already taking place on 14 July.