Every year Rodion Bas, the director general of the International Slavic Bazaar Music Festival in Vitebsk, is asked the same question: What’s the difference between this year’s festival and the one last year?
The man who conceived the idea for this festival always has a ready answer, explaining that the Vitebsk festival is gaining in scope, versatility, and technological support with each passing year. This year all the continents of the world were represented for the first time in the festival’s 17-year history. Vitebsk played host to performing groups from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australia, and Europe: 35 countries in all.
Vitebsk, a typical Soviet-type provincial Belarusian town, has changed beyond recognition ever since the music festival was founded. Today it is a modern cultural center with excellent highways, well-tended parks, public gardens, restored churches and monuments, and an advanced infrastructure. The festival has benefited not only President Alexander Lukashenka, who has built his image as a leader who supports cultural initiatives, but also the residents of Vitebsk. The Slavic Bazaar enjoys generous support from the state and local businesspeople.
Like Ukraine, Belarus at one time experienced a festival boom, when every oblast and raion center, let alone Minsk, wanted to hold an international festival or competition. The Belarusian culture ministry was always crowded with delegates from all regions, asking for funds. Everyone wanted a slice of the pie, and almost everybody got one.
But an all-Belarusian festival project somehow never came to fruition, until the government changed its tactic several years ago: priority measures in every sphere of art and culture would receive state funds. It was as simple as that: you have an idea to hold a festival? Go ahead, but you’ll have to find your own funding sources.
As a result, Belarus became the venue of several international festivals that eventually became its calling cards. As repeatedly reaffirmed by the FIDOF (Federation Internationale des Organisations de Festivals) the Slavic Bazaar is recognized as a top international event.
Large-scale events, like festivals, require adequate security measures. This year, after a bomb exploded in a crowd marking Belarusian Independence Day in Minsk, special security arrangements were made for the festival.
I never saw so many policemen in my life. There were checkpoints on all the streets and lanes half a kilometer from every concert stage. There were metal detectors through which everyone had to pass, including passersby and rock stars. Purses and bags were opened and carefully examined. Journalists were subjected to checkups five times along the legendary 100-meter racecourse from the Vitebsk Hotel to the amphitheater.
The residents of Vitebsk had an understanding attitude to the heightened security measures, but guests of the city were outraged. The rock singer Neodesha Babine told journalists at a press conference, “You overdid the security. People with bottles of water were not admitted until they drank the water right on the spot or dumped them. That didn’t look good.”
Oleg Gazmanov disagreed. “I wasn’t bothered by the security measures. Even if one person’s life is saved, it is worth enduring such temporary inconveniences. They can frisk me a dozen times, I won’t be offended.”
It turns out that Gazmanov had performed at the concert in Minsk before the bomb went off. The daughter of one of his Minsk friends happened to be in the epicenter of the explosion. Fortunately, she left the area right after Gazmanov’s performance and she was unharmed. The incident stunned the Russian singer, but he is determined to continuing performing, no matter what.
TWO BIOLOGICAL SISTERS AND ONE STEPSISTER
While the festival’s geography is changing, its concept, as proclaimed 17 years ago, remains unchanged: the unity of Slavic cultures and friendship among the Slavic peoples. But the family relationships have changed. Now the Belarusians mostly declare their love for only one “sister” — Russia.
This is not only because Ukraine is one of the last countries to confirm its participation in the festival — after insistent, repeated requests and invitations issued by the organizing committee, clearly a sign of disrespect. Unlike the delegation from Russia, which is invariably headed by a state official no lower than a minister of culture, official Ukraine is represented by our ambassador to Belarus.
Ukraine’s unstable domestic political situation, which is portrayed in a mocking fashion on Russian television channels, along with Russia’s fear-mongering over the Ukraine-NATO relationship, has served to create an unattractive image of our country in the eyes of average Belarusians: that of an aggressive, scandal-ridden family.
In addition, the idea of the Union state — the political alliance between Russia and Belarus (an idea that will shock many foreign visitors in Vitebsk) — basically changes the ideological motto of the friendship among the three Slavic nations. This virtual state is gradually moving from declarations to reality: today there are jointly owned media, and joint economic and social programs are underway.
Pavel Borodin, the State Secretary of this Union State, who has always attended the Slavic Bazaar and held press conferences for all media people accredited to the festival, declared this year that they “owe the Constitution of the Union State” to the citizens of Belarus and Russia. The Slavic Bazaar is a political image-building project for the Belarusian government. Not coincidentally, President Lukashenko never misses the festival’s opening ceremony. Ukraine should decide whether it wants to be present at this festival or not. If we care about the kind of image of Ukraine that is being constructed by Russia’s spin doctors in Belarus, if we really want to refute the myth about Ukraine as a monster, then we must regard the Vitebsk festival as an opportunity to show our worth for the rest of the world to see. After all, it is said that in international diplomacy, art and sports can do what diplomats and politicians are unable to accomplish.
FOR THE SAKE OF UKRAINE
This time The Day of Ukraine was the culminating point of the festival’s concert programs. Ruslana’s European Show, featuring a multitude of audio, video, and sound effects, showcased some wonderful ballet numbers and songs. It put the traditional repertoire of this Slavic culture day in the shade. The song “Wild Dances” were followed by lyrical ballads. Ruslana performed “Chervona ruta” to her own piano accompaniment, with the thousands of spectators in the amphitheater joining in.
Aleksandr Tikhanovich, People’s Artist of Belarus and the founder of the legendary rock group Verasy, raced onstage with a huge bouquet and joined Ruslana in singing the ever-popular Ukrainian hit. Then the orchestra struck up a potpourri of Ukrainian folk songs and the audience went wild. Encouraged by Ruslana and disregarding the security guards’ admonitions, young and old spectators rose from their seats and started dancing. Thousands of hands raised yellow-and-blue scarves that the festival organizers had ordered from Kyiv and distributed to the audience.
Unlike many of her Russian musical colleagues, who repeated the mantra-like slogan “Belarus and Russia: Together Forever!” Ruslana sang about love among all people. This love was prominent in every song that she performed. She sang all her songs in Ukrainian, and the Belarusian audience understood them perfectly. After all, love is a language that does not need any translation.
The Ukrainian singer was rewarded with stormy applause and a sea of bouquets. One fan, who admitted that she had cut short her vacation in the Crimea to attend the concert, presented the singer with a bouquet of blue cornflowers and yellow chrysanthemums. Another fan complained that the security guards had taken her notepad that she had brought for Ruslana to sign. The Ukrainian singer gave her one of the drummer’s spare sticks as a souvenir.
A 10-year-old boy, one of the festival participants, presented her with his first CD of songs and a bouquet of flowers. On learning that he was also a drummer, Ruslana sat him down at the drums. The audience demanded an encore from the young drummer.
After the concert Ruslana was met by a crowd of fans at the exit. She had warm words for everyone. Vitebsk fans have only even offered this kind of adulation to Sofia Rotaru.
“That was great! What a show! Captivating!” was the comment from Yadviga Poplavska, People’s Artist of Belarus. She could not contain her admiration, declaring that “Ruslana is an example of how musicians should perform!”
For two 10-year-old Ukrainian performers named Vladyslav Karashchuk and Dmytro Borodin, the prologue of their triumph in Vitebsk was their participation in the 6th International Children’s Competition Vitebsk-2008. Although they performed well, they didn’t win any awards. One of the jury members, the Russian composer Lora Kvint, said in an interview: “Your boys will never be without jobs. They will always have an audience, so the points they have been given aren’t what really matters.”
Her statement may have been her attempt to justify the low number of points she gave the Ukrainian performers. Fortunately, the boys were not affected by these adult games. At first, Tetiana Pirozhenko, from the Ukraine State Concert Agency, who was chaperoning the boys, was worried that their friendship would be wrecked by the fact that only one of them could be a winner. Later, she was concerned about both of them losing the competition. But after the jury made its announcement, Dmytro and Vladyslav were seen happily running around the festival’s administrative offices, while Tetiana was crying and being comforted by the boys’ parents, who have gotten used to the idea that their sons won’t always place first.
The international pop song competition was one of the festival’s main highlights. The leading singer was determined instantly: the handsome Lithuanian singer Donatas Montvidas. His performed sparked a storm of applause, and he got the highest number of points from the jury, including 10 points from its head, Riccardo (Richard) Cocciante, the composer of Notre Dame de Paris , who is known for his tough judging.
Russia’s Yelena Valevskaia and Belarus’s Vitalii Gordii each received 201 points and shared the first prize. They were followed by Georgia’s passionate singer Nodiko. Vladyslav Levytsky from Lviv, who appears on the popular television variety show called Chance, placed third, sharing the prize with Plamen Patov of Bulgaria.
Levytsky scored 193 points during the two days of the competition. That’s not a bad score, although we are used to the idea of our performers winning, like Taisia Povalii, Ruslana, and Natalia Krasnianska, the winner of last year’s Grand Prix. (For reasons best known to the organizing committee, contrary to established tradition, Krasnianska was not invited to perform in Vitebsk.) When he was on stage to take part in the final group song of the festival, Vladyslav looked sadder than Nena, a singer from Kyrgyzstan, who received the record lowest number of 164 points from the jury. Montvidas received 210 points, winning the Grand Prix and the prize purse of $10,000.
