The International Festival of Arts “Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk” ( be, Міжнародны фестываль мастацтваў «Славянскі базар у Віцебску», uk, Міжнародний фестиваль мистецтв «Слов'янський базар у Вітебську», russian: Международный фестиваль искусств "Славянский базар в Витебске"), also known as Slavic Bazaar, is an annual

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

held in

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest ci ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

under the auspices of the Belarusian Government since 1992. Its main program is devoted to

Slavic music Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Sl ...

. The main participants are artists from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, countries of the former

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, and

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

with guests from many other countries, both Slavic and non-Slavic.

History

The predecessor of the festival was "Polish Song Festival in Vitebsk" ( pl, :pl:Festiwal Piosenki Polskiej w Witebsku) that was held in Vitebsk. Vitebsk was chosen to host the festival according to the agreements with Polish city

Zielona Góra Zielona Góra is the largest city in Lubusz Voivodeship, located in western Poland, with 140,403 inhabitants (2021). Zielona Góra has a favourable geographical position, being close to the Polish-German border and on several international road ...

where "Soviet Song Festival" ( pl, Festiwal Piosenki Radzieckiej) was held since 1965. The main venue of the present-day festival, the Amphitheatre, was constructed especially for such occasion in 1988. Only two editions of the "Polish Song Festival in Vitebsk" were held: in 1988 and 1990. After the

Dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

the cultural ties between the former Soviet bloc countries have broken. So there emerged an idea to organize a cultural arrangement in order to show the cultural diversity of Slavic nations. The first Slavianski Bazaar was opened in 1992. It was organized by the

Belarusian Government The Government of the Republic of Belarus ( be, Урад Рэспублікі Беларусь), which consists of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus (), is the executive branch of state power in Belarus, and is appointed by the ...

with the financial support from

and

. The main goal of the very first festival was an attempt to acquaint the Belarusian audience with pop and folk trends from Slavic countries. In 1993 the festival became a member of the

International Federation of Festival Organizations Federation Internationale des Organisations de Festivals (FIDOF, "International Federation of Festival Organizations") was an organization to hold and organize festivals worldwide. It was established in 1966, and headquartered in Split, Yugoslavia ...

(FIDOF). The festival was awarded the diploma 'FIDOF Festival of the Year 2000' "for impeccable quality of organization, professionalism, hospitality, and promotion of noble humanistic aims on the international level".

The contest

During the festival, a contest for young singers is held. It has two stages, each held on a separate day. On the first day the contestants should perform the song in a

national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...

of the country the contestant represents. All vocals are sung live using

backing track A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live music ...

. On the second day the contestants perform the song written by a composer from any Slavic country in any of the

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...

. On this stage all vocals must be sung live with the

National Concert Orchestra of Belarus National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

under Mikhail Finberg's conduction.

Children's contest winners

The children's contest during the festival in Vitebsk was first held in 2003, an expansion of the cultural and artistic diversity of the event. It has become one of the mainstay events in the Eurasian Region (

North Asia North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

) for child performers making their way to

Junior Eurovision Song Contest The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (often shortened to JESC, Junior Eurovision or Junior EuroSong) is an international song competition which has been organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) annually since 2003. It is held in a diff ...

Ksenia Sitnik at the 2005 Junior Eurovision Song Contest (2)

Luiza Nurkuatova at Slavianski Bazaar 2015 (2)

References

External links

Slavianski Bazaar websiteNews of Slavianski Bazaar
{{coord missing, Belarus Bazaars Culture in Vitebsk Music festivals established in 1992 Rock festivals in Belarus Singing competitions Music competitions in Belarus Tourist attractions in Vitebsk Region

History

The contest

Children's contest winners

See also

References

External links