She.Fest was launched in 2014 to mark the poet’s 200th birth anniversary. This year, the village of Moryntsi, Cherkasy oblast, receives guests on August 12-13. All eyes are on Taras Shevchenko, topical and close to everyone. “This festival of national unity is important to all Ukrainians, particularly the young people,” Shevchenko researcher Oksana DANYLCHENKO believes. “We can rally here around what we’ve known since our childhood – Shevchenko’s oeuvre and the moral imperatives he created.” The festival also has other, annually changing, aspects. The fourth She.Fest will be held under the slogan “Your Country – Your Struggle.”
The event will take place under the auspices of Ukraine’s Ministry for Youth and Sport. Deputy Minister Oleksandr Yarema emphasizes: “It is of paramount importance for us to support the projects that show the young people in various regions and abroad what real Ukraine is like and allow them to communicate and acquire knowledge about cultural traditions and culture. She.Fest is a platform that can resolve these problems.”
Yulia Kapshuchenko-Shumeiko, a co-organizer of the event, says the festival will comprise 12 locations. Masters will conduct authentic master classes at the fair and teach children to weave lambs out of straw. The little ones will be reading Shevchenko’s poems and Ukrainian fairytales in a separate glade. On the theatrical billboard is the premiere of Somebody Else’s Dreams, a production of the Kyiv-based amateur theater Shchek, and a play on Shevchenko’s last love. The musical stage will present the Kozak System, the Motor’rolla, the Vivienne Mort, and other bands. The nighttime cultural program will include Ukrainian films and acoustic concerts. The art glade will attract visitors with not only exhibits and master classes, but also the collective copying of Shevchenko’s well-known picture “Kateryna.” The organizers have also planned excursions in Moryntsi and Shevchenkove, as well as a program of lectures. There will be a food court and tents for festival visitors.
Admission to She.Fest is free. Yet the festival team annually raises charity funds. This year the organizers will be helping the family of a killed ATO soldier.
