The festival “Fest-party in a peasant’s house!” was held in the Pokrovska AH.

On September 14, 2019, the festival “Fest-party in a peasant’s house!” took place in the Pokrovska OTG of the Dnipropetrovsk region (Pokrovskoe village) as part of the competition of cultural and artistic projects “Small cities – big impressions”.

In accordance with the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of July 10, 2019 No. 535-r “On approval of the list of cultural and artistic projects-winners of the competition of cultural and artistic projects “Small cities – big impressions”, which will be implemented in 2019 under the conditions of co-financing from the state budget” SE State Directorate of International Competitions and Art Programs “ART-Ukraine” and the Social and Humanitarian Department of the Executive Committee of the Pokrovsk Village Council prepared and held the festival “Fest-party in a peasant hut!” in Pokrovsky OTG within the framework of the competition of cultural and artistic projects “Small cities – big impressions” on September 14, 2019 in the village of Pokrovsky, Pokrovsky district, Dnipropetrovsk region.

The goal of the festival is the preservation and development of authentic culture, its sustainable use, which was formed as a result of the combination of multinational cultures by holding the multi-genre festival “Fest-party in a peasant’s house!” in the Pokrovsk community.

The main tasks of the festival were to increase the tourist potential, popularize and develop the local culture of communities, folk crafts and decorative and applied arts, promote the development of the creative potential of talented people in various genres, interregional exchange of experience and creative achievements.

It should be noted that several dozen festivals of different styles are held in Ukraine every year, and of course, so that our first multi-genre festival, which has the idea of ​​combining Ukrainian and cultures of different nationalities, turned into a grand celebration of folk creativity, a lot of effort was made and certain measures were taken to implement the project : organizational, preparatory, conducting the festival and summing up the results.

The work of the project was coordinated by 12 members of the working group, who developed regulations about the festival and constantly informed the population in social networks, mass media and on the official website of the community about the festival “Fest-party in a peasant’s house!” in Pokrovsk OTG.

Organizing the first big multi-genre festival was a real learning experience. After all, the experience we gained while implementing this project is a real acquisition of knowledge in PR, project management, logistics, and the organization of sites with different themes in one cultural space. In addition, for the first time, we attempted to set a Ukrainian record, which rallied our community around the achievement of the set goal – the longest streak in Ukraine. The preparatory stage for setting a record is really a team effort: cutting, preparing, weaving, installing and decorating – and all this is the work of about 200 hardworking residents of Pokrovsk OTG.

The stage of preparing the festival itself was no less responsible. And this is the development of a scenario, a map-scheme of the festival territory, arranging the location, making unique decorations, collecting applications from participants, inviting guests and the jury, explaining the work to volunteer coordinators of the event, etc. All this was difficult for us, because for the first time we had to combine multi-genres and not lose the idea of ​​a festival with a combination of different cultures. In addition, the festival is called “Fest-party in a peasant house!”, so we decided to decorate the exhibition and entertainment location in the form of a peasant house with a yard. After all, in the mind of every Ukrainian, a house is not just a place to live, but a native, own corner close to the heart, where every owner hospitably receives guests. So our community in Pokrovshchyna sincerely invited and received all guests. In addition to the decorative peasant house, which personified the creative flair, artistic and aesthetic taste of our community, the courtyard was outlined by the mud that was established from our Pokrovsky historical and local history museum, that is, from the sources of the history of our community. Also, more than 100 people prepared various decorative and utilitarian products and elements from the life of a peasant family: the stove with the owner and the hostess, which was always the family hearth, in which the fire was burning, fragrant bread was baked; a table with delicious dishes that had magical power and symbolized the wealth of the family; a cradle with a baby, reflected the events of family life and was a symbol of the multiplication of the family; a beehive, a loom and a cart demonstrated the family’s industriousness; a tub and a basket with vegetables symbolized well-being; the windmill is a landmark that travelers and those traveling on Ukrainian land have admired from afar. In addition, craftsmen and decorators in the field of culture and art (51 people) made and assembled various decorative flowers, wreaths, dolls, various wooden products, large Easter eggs, knitted rugs, paths, towels and Ukrainian shirts embroidered with ornaments, jugs, pots, etc. And part of the exhibition and entertainment location was also thought out in detail – it is an art space, where paintings and products reflecting the past and present took place.

The participants of the festival and their leaders and mentors in the genres of vocals (147 people), instrumental music (42 people), choreography (116 people) and artistic reading (25 people), including about 100 talented participants trained in several genres at the same time. In all their performances, they tried to show the flavor of the local culture of the community, which was formed as a result of the combination of Ukrainian culture with cultures of different nationalities.

Countless days of preparation, rehearsals, hard collective work and finally the long-awaited moment of the official opening of the first multi-genre festival “Fest-party in a peasant’s house!” in the Pokrovsk OTG on September 14, 2019.

The festival was a single cultural space that included entertainment venues and locations for competitions in the genres of vocal, instrumental music, choreography and art reading. On the same day, a representative of the “Book of Records of Ukraine” recorded and confirmed with a diploma the setting of the record of Ukraine for the longest tin, 150 m long. The “Mastery of Golden Hands” competition was held at the exhibition and entertainment location, in which 51 participants took part in the fields of painting, pottery, embroidery, puppetry, pyrography and graphics, decorative processing of stone and wood. In the fields of painting, the creation of visual images of still lifes, landscapes, historical, household and animalistic genres, portraits, which are applied to boards, paper, canvas, dishes, etc. with the help of paints, oils, pencils, were presented. The imaginations of artists created complex plots of cultures and traditions of the past and present, full of emotions. Three unique paintings from pyrography – the technique of “painting with fire”, the essence of which consists in applying a pattern with the help of a hot needle, and nine monochrome paintings from graphics, which are characterized by the predominance of lines and strokes, were presented. Pottery was represented by various forms of jugs, pots, which were painted with various ornaments or decorated with molding compositions. Embroidery with beads and threads could not take away the eyes of every guest of the festival, because it acquired modernity in color, seams and relief based on traditional geometric and plant ornaments. In addition, the participants of the Mykolaiv OTG of the Petropavlovsk district presented a collection of “Ukrainian folk festive women’s and girls’ clothes, headdresses and jewelry in the author’s performance.” Interested guests talked about the fact that even abroad in the Ukrainian diaspora, such a collection would not be worth the price – that’s how authenticity and author’s work are valued there. Puppetry has become a real talisman of the festival and the spiritual unity of different cultures. A whole microcosm of the doll was created from the fabric and accessories, and the artistic modeling of the clothes reflected the combination of traditions and cultures of different nationalities, which created the community’s own local culture. At the festival, you could take a picture with Motanka dolls, gypsy dolls or Yemla doll on the stove. The decorative decoration of wood and stone was represented by relief carving. The products were so diverse that they reflected both modernity and the ancient heritage of different cultures. A contest to represent their community was also held at the decorative location, where the participants were creative: they rapped, sang, danced, demonstrated, told stories, etc.

The guests were hospitably treated to delicious dumplings, donuts, pies, and kulish. Participants tasted fragrant pizza. There were themed stalls for people of all ages: kebab glade, dumpling, pancakes, coffee, oriental sweets, etc. With the participation of the Youth Council of Pokrovsk OTG, a playground was created, mass workers with a program for children also worked on the roller drome. The Museum of History and Local Lore conducted tours during the day for all those who wanted to touch the pages of the past of our holy heritage, and this was for about 70 people who visited the museum. The literary-artistic and local history-historical almanac “Pokrovskoye vidokolo” was presented. This collection introduced the readers to the cultural and artistic life of the villages and towns of Pokrovsk OTG, its outstanding personalities, its past and present. The literary sections of the collection present the works of people of different ages and professions who were united by the poetic word. The works of historical and local studies are dedicated to our rich heroic history, in particular, the little-known memories of Dmytro Yavornytskyi about his stay in Pokrovshchyna. The works of masters of photography from the section “Moments” reflect the beauty of native nature, absorb and reflect aspects of the surrounding life. The variety of topics, genres, stylistic features of publications, and illustrative materials gave a wide range of readers the opportunity to learn more about their small homeland, to be consciously proud of it, to love it more.

And in parallel, competitions were held by location, where 237 participants took part in such genres as instrumental, vocal, choreographic and artistic reading. In addition, talented children, which are about 100 people, participated in several genres because they want to show their talent in music, vocals, and dance. So, in the instrumental genre, pianists (6 people), trumpeters (4 people), violinists (8 people), drummers (4 people), guitarists (5 people), percussionists (3 people), viola players (3 people), trumpet players were represented. (2 persons), clarinetist (1 person), pan-flautist (1 person), tenorist (1 person), dombrist (1 person), barinotonist (1 person), trombonist (2 persons), who performed their works combining music of various nationalities with Ukrainian culture. And the vocals were represented by melodious songs of Ukrainian and other peoples of the world, which were performed in different languages ​​by 147 people. In addition, both the vocals and the music featured the works of local poets and musicians. In particular, the ethnic ensemble “Exotics” performed their original melodies of wind, rain, sun, tenderness and inspiration.

Artistic images created by body movements, spontaneous expression of feelings, moods, emotions of the human soul, ethnic costumes – all this art of choreographic dance was demonstrated by children at the festival (116 people), skillfully weaving elements of cultures of different peoples of the world into Ukrainian dance and showing everyone the novelty of choreography.

The taste of another language and traditions could be felt at the artistic reading contest, where 25 participants performed works by authors of different peoples of the world. Techniques of artistic reading, improvisation and recitation enchanted the audience and did not leave any of the jury members indifferent.

The audience enjoyed the program prepared by amateur artists and art groups who came from different parts of Ukraine from morning to evening. Then there was a summary of the results of the festival and the award ceremony. The performances of the teams were evaluated by a professional jury of 9 people. The Grand Prix was awarded to the best participant of the festival – a team from the Mykolaiv OTG of the Petropavlovsk District of the Dnipropetrovsk Region for the demonstration of ethnic Ukrainian clothing. 40 winners were also determined, who were awarded cups: gold – 10 participants, silver – 10 participants, bronze (red) – 15 participants, and for creativity – 5 participants.

Since the festival was attended by more than 1,300 spectators and 288 participants from 17 delegations of 4 regions of Ukraine (Dunayevets City Council of Khmelnytskyi Region; Sokolivsk Village Council of Kropyvnytskyi District of Kirovohrad Region; Zaporizhzhia Region: Berdyansk City Council, Ternuvatsk Settlement Council of Novomykolaiv District, Novomykolaivsk Settlement Council of Novomykolaiv District Dnipropetrovsk Region: Bohdanivska Village Council of Pavlograd District, Verbivska Village Council of Pavlograd District, Ilarionivska Village Council of Synelnyk District, Mykolaiv Village Council of Petropavlovsk District, Mezhivska Village Council of Mezhiv District, Novostepanivska Village Council of Novomoskovsk District, Pischanska Village Council of Novomoskovsk District district, Velikymykhailiv village council of Pokrovsky district, Orliv village council of Pokrovsky district, Kateryniv village council of Pokrovsky district, Pokrovsky village council of Pokrovsky district), then the festival “Fest-party in a peasant house!” in Pokrovsk OTG can safely be called “all-Ukrainian”.

Implementation of the project “Fest-party in a peasant house!” in Pokrovsk OTG as part of the competition of cultural and artistic projects “Small cities – big impressions” gives an opportunity to expand the formats of the festival for the next year and invite more creative teams from all over Ukraine, to start new traditions and competitions. The annual holding of such a festival in Pokrovshchyna will ensure the popularization of the cultural heritage of the community and the development of tourism potential, which in the future will increase the economic capacity of our Pokrovska settlement united territorial community.

You ask: “How to measure the success of the event?”. We will answer: “The festival was our first child, which we believe has a future!”. And we can honestly say that the festival activated and united our community. So our own first all-Ukrainian multi-genre festival in Pokrovshchyna – Mission is possible!