“You must have heard at times the rumble of a distant waterfall... Isn’t it the same feeling that overwhelms you in the hurly-burly of a village fair?.. Outcries, curses, bleating, roaring — everything blends into continual irregular commotion... The whole crowd turns into one giant monster that is moving all parts of its body... Oxen, bags, straw, gypsies, caldrons, country women, gingerbread, fur hats... — everything flickers before your eyes.” Every time you visit a fair in the village of Velyki Sorochyntsi, Poltava oblast (this nationwide government-sponsored extravaganza was last held August 20 to 24), the above-quoted words of apiarist Panko the Red, a character in Nikolai Gogol’s Evenings on a Farm near Dykanka, raise a new gamut of associations in you. This time the impression was that — contrary to what many individuals sometimes think — the Ukrainian state has not lost everything. Unfortunately, an overseas amusement park and the never- ending lines of stalls selling Turkish cosmetics, Chinese sneakers, and Russian pop duo Tattoo cassettes were again part and parcel of the national retrospective show. Or of modern culture? Or of the economy? Yet...
ON A NATIONWIDE SCALE
This year’s Sorochyntsi fair barely squeezed into an area of sixteen hectares. The function was prepared by about 1000 entities, a third of them being industrial enterprises. Sausages and farming machinery, flower pots and hard liquor, handmade baskets and automobiles, dairy products, watermelons, tavern utensils, and God knows what else — everything was literally drowned in Ukrainian songs, theatrical shows, games, competitions, jokes, and genuine bazaar-type trade. Contrary to expectations or, rather, an easy-to-explain habit, the spirit of good organization did not evaporate even after the departure of Cabinet and Poltava oblast administration officials, as well as representatives of thirteen foreign embassies. Nikolai Gogol (Mykola Hohol) himself (naturally, played by a professional actor) continued to grace visitors with his presence for a couple of hours after the fair opened.
I am not certain whether the 2003 fair broke the 1845 record, when merchants alone brought to Sorochyntsi and sold goods worth 10,000 silver rubles, an unheard-of amount in those times. (incidentally, there were five fairs in those times: St. Basil’s held on Christmas Eve, Easter’s held on Lent’s fifth week, St. Trinity’s on May 31 to June 1 under the Julian calendar, St. Spirit’s in September, and St. Philip’s in November). Still, the very fact that a participant in this year’s fair, who preferred to remain anonymous and rented a 120 square meter trading site for $20,000, claims that the fair can benefit not only the organizers speaks volumes. It is equally true, however, that far from all share this optimism because either “trade is sluggish” or “the local population’s purchasing power is low...” On the other hand, as The Day’s correspondent managed to learn, far from all do their business at the fair on the conditions mentioned above. Participation fees are usually based on the “make a deal” principle. Incidentally, orphanages and locals pay absolutely nothing — quite and not so officially, by courtesy of the organizers, and at their own risk.
Summing up our economic impressions, let us note that the last year’s Sorochyntsi fair was visited by about two million customers. Enterprises from Ukraine’s all regions found a good market for their goods at the fair. Meanwhile, the “enthusiastic and pleasantly shocked” Vice Premier Ivan Kyrylenko (who, incidentally, dealt with the Sorochyntsi tradition for the first time) opined that a fair like this was not only proof of Ukraine’s high intellectual potential but also a departure point in search of investors in the agrarian sector.
A FEAST WITHOUT HOUSE ARRESTS
The farmers who break into the Kyiv City Hall with a grenade in hand prove that the flow of investments into the agrarian sector does not depend on intellectual potential alone. But so much about sad things. Why not say a word about things pleasant? The latter, strangely enough, include not only craftsmen’s products but also law enforcement officers. Those who have repeatedly visited the Sorochyntsi fairs know that this feast often went hand in hand with house arrests, to quote a phrase from a movie. In other words, the fair’s program included a visit of Kyiv grandees who were, to put it mildly, closely guarded from locals and journalists. Such things (absolutely impossible in Europe which Ukraine strives to get into), often put a strain on one, mar the festive mood, kill the desire to buy and sell, and fill the fair with all too familiar national sentiments.
This year, despite quite a large number of official visitors and, accordingly, tight police cordons, the guardians of public order were no nuisance at all. Is it because the fair was not visited by the presidents of Ukraine and Russia or because our society is really assuming democratic features? In any case, it was pleasant, frankly speaking, to see guests and local residents alike being able to walk unhindered in the wake of the official procession. Or see, to one’s great surprise, a farmer’s son boldly treating, on his own initiative, the outgoing Mr. Kyrylenko to a watermelon he had raised by himself. The boy will long remember the fountain pen the grateful minister presented in return.
INFRASTABILITY
Conversely, what is going to scare off potential investors for still a long time is the way the fair’s infrastructure was organized. While it is quite possible to put the shortage of hotel accommodation down to the promotion of so-called green tourism, the long toilet lines and the parking lots for which suspicious looking men took money (the common visitors’ cars stood, like last year, in an open field under a scorching sun) showed that the Sorochyntsi fair is still a long way from a Mardi Gras. It was said at the press conference that the local mayor was immensely glad and ready to assess the handsome profit his region derived from the fair. However, sooner or later, those who have dubbed the fair national or even international and who want Ukrainian traditions and producers (not Chinese sneakers and Korean watermelons) to live and thrive will have to address this so far infrastable problem. Otherwise, nobody will ever take seriously the fair’s slogan, What’s made in Poltava is best. Moreover, nobody will even hear of it outside Ukraine. And even if one does hear, he will raise his eyebrows or laugh out loud.
Thus far one can say with certainty only that winners in the Sorochyntsi nomination of Top Ukrainian Quality will be the first in line to take part in the EXPO-2005 worldwide exhibition at Aichi, Japan. In addition, the organizers are proud that a Ukrainian national team has laid out a brilliant Township of Masters in Vitebsk. Given the profound Sorochyntsi tradition, the promotion of the fair by Gogol and Mussorgsky, along with comments by the foreign (at least Russian) mass media, it would be unwise, frankly speaking, to content oneself with this kind of marketing achievements. Otherwise, the Sorochyntsi fair will be doomed to remain nothing but a flea market that begins where the national producer’s kiosks end. Nobody would then notice our producer outside Ukraine, while the Sorochyntsi fair would be showing the consumers its other, by no means the best, side.
