The 'Strawberry Festival' in Liozno will become a new brand of the Vitebsk region
This year, within the framework of the regional festival-fair of rural workers "Dazhynki-2014" , the Liozno district became a laureate and the owner of a first-degree diploma in the competition of cities and districts "Vitebshchyna - hospitable" in the nomination "Best presentation of a thematic theatricalized site". This glory was brought to the Liozno region by one of the best cultural projects - the festival "Songs of strawberry groves".
Born in 1998 on the basis of the Dobromyslsky rural House of Culture as a local festival of author's songs, it gathered amateur poets, composers, and performers. The main competition was initially held on the stage of the rural House of Culture.
A little later, it became a district-level event, and poems and songs began to be heard (in unison with the birds' voices!) on a site in a pine grove, where the scent of strawberries truly lingers. Since 2009, it has been a regional festival-competition, and by tradition, guests from the cities of Rudnya and Yelnya in the neighboring Smolensk region also become participants, which gives the project an international status. This summer, another innovation affected the project:
"Songs of Strawberry Bogs" were moved from Dobromysli to the district center. And if earlier up to 150 people participated in the festival at most, now the whole city does. In the main square of Liozno, they even installed "strawberry gates", from which the holiday now "dances".Dedicated to the Year of Hospitality, this year the festival-competition gathered dozens of individual performers and creative groups, the program included a spectacular fire show, and
"Sweet Courtyard", where strawberry jam was cooked, and master classes from the district House of Crafts, and vernissages of artists, - said Tatyana Shulgan, head of the department of ideological work, culture and youth affairs of the Liozno District Executive Committee. - We want to turn to the XX century in the future, which was rich in communication between people, colorful games, including children's ones, we plan to create a children's playground, we will show rituals, remind and promote them among young people. Thus, the festival, remaining traditional, gets an increasingly original sound, is filled with new content. We deliberated for a long time on the creative brand, but then decided: why reinvent the wheel if such a festival has existed for many years, loved by the local population, whose visiting card has become a strawberry - a fragrant, juicy, tasty berry, a fruit of the land, rich in folk talents, as a symbol not only of this holiday, but also of our entire Liozno region.And now in the district, a competition is underway for the original use of the brand in future programs of the folk festival
«Songs of the Strawberry Bars».Natalia DROZDOVA, "Vitbichi"