"Belarusian Summer - 2016" will gather guests from Europe, Asia, and Africa in the Vitebsk region

The international festival project "Belarusian Summer - 2016" will bring together representatives from Europe, Asia, and Africa in the Vitebsk region from August 19-28, as reported by one of the project initiators, Violetta Grudskaya, director of RaidoTour LLC.

The main connecting element of the project is spochain (sport chabara), specifically the first international festival with a tournament in this Japanese martial art using safe swords.

"The project program and participant geography are still expanding. We have now been joined even by spochain athletes from Africa. And to the multicultural component, in addition to the previously announced "Apple Spas" festival in Sharkovshchina and the "Visiting the Lepel Dragon" international mythology festival, cosplay based on "Star Wars" has also been added. We invite all interested parties to cooperate, and the residents of Belarus to participate in these events," noted Violetta Grudskaya. "For the athletes, all these cultural events will take place around the main event – the open spochain tournament "Belarus Open - 2016" – and will make the stay of its participants on Belarusian soil even more exciting," is confident Andrei Kalistov, head of the Belarusian Spochain Federation.

Partly through spochain, which is rapidly developing in our country, the organizers hope to attract the attention of foreign guests to the tourist potential of the Vitebsk region. The "Belarus Open - 2016" participants will be hosted at the "Lesnoye" sanatorium in the Dokshitsy district. The tournament itself will take place on August 26.

On other days, leading coaches from Japan, Russia, Italy, Estonia, and Uganda will conduct master classes, and an international referee seminar on ISCA rules with subsequent certification will also take place. This was announced by representatives of the Land of the Rising Sun at the recent European Championship in Paris. By the way, the Belarusian team participated in competitions of this level for the first time and quite successfully: Vitebsk athlete Maria Tatarinova won a bronze medal in short sword (kodachi) duels.

"Belarusian Summer - 2016" was initiated by tour operator LLC "RaidoTour" (Vitebsk) and the Belarusian Federation of Spochant. The project was supported by the district executive committees of the involved territories - Sharkovshchyna, Lepel, Dokshytsy, and Glubokoye. The National Tourism Agency of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism, the Department of Sports and Tourism of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, and the State Institution "Lesnoye Sanatorium" of the KGB of the Republic of Belarus joined the list of organizers. Partners include the Interregional Public Organization for the Development of Spochant of Russia and the International Spochant Association.

Ekaterina Knyazeva - BELTA.