On 25-28 August, a summer capital Pärnu, Estonia, hosted the 4th International Slavic Culture Festival “Svetoch-2016” held with the support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation. A great number of on-stage performance groups from Russia, Belarus, Latvia and Estonia took part in it.
About 500 people had arrived at the Festival. Some of them visited Estonia for the first time and they enjoyed the tours of the town, which is rich in historical sites connected with representatives of Slavic culture, a lot.
The Festival opened with a concert of Orthodox spiritual music held at St. Catherine's Church. Rector of the Church hieromonach Jonas blessed all the festival participants for good deeds.
The festival participants visited master-classes in folk singing, Russian folk dancing, and Estonian folk dancing given by highly qualified specialists such as A. Ustinov and L. Vesnina, Petrozavodsk, and Roland Landing, Pärnu.
All the festival participants had a chance to get to know each other better during various meetings held at the Pärnu Concert Hall.
Day 3 of the Festival was a contest day and the performers presented their dancing and music skills on the best stages of the Pärnu Concert Hall. They competed in such nominations as folk dances and stylized folk dances, the best soloist, the best ensemble, the best choir and the best instrumental composition.
The Pärnu Concert Hall hosted exhibitions of works made by craftsmen from different countries, who also arranged various workshops for all those who felt like getting to know how they created their works.
The Festival ended with a fantastic gala-concert in which the award and special certificate winners had taken part.
Besides performing at the Festival, the participants of the 4th International Slavic Culture Festival “Svetoch-2016” improved their professional skills as well.
The “Svetoch-2016” gathered not only representatives of Slavic culture together but also provided those who aspired to good-neighborly relations, cooperation and mutual understanding and were interested in Slavic cultural traditions with the opportunity to learn them better.
That was the goal the “Svetoch” Festival had been established by the Educational Development Center Järeleaitaja (Pärnu, Estonia).
