Cultural news in the Vologda region

The closing ceremony of the Second International Festival of Folk Art and Crafts «Voices of Crafts» was held in Kremlin Square on June 28. Vologda’s Mayor Yevgeny Shulepov gave diplomas and valuable presents to the winners of the competition program in 25 various nominations.

This large festival took place in Vologda fr om June 25 to 28. The city got into the atmosphere of a real handicraft holiday for four days – about 1000 masters from more than 30 regions of Russia, France and Belarus participated in the event.

Vologda’s Mayor Yevgeny Shulepov underlined in his speech at the closing ceremony, «We have prepared for this festival for a long time and we have succeeded. Over 100 thousand residents of Vologda and tourists have become spectators of this large-scale event. The masters have presented 30 kinds of various folk crafts. But the main result is probably the interest of our children in the «Voices of Crafts» Festival. They have spent several hours on the children’s playground, have adopted the craftsmen’s methods with great interest and have tried their hand at various handicrafts. It means that we have prepared for a good reason».

Plenty of master-classes, shows, exhibitions, lectures and round table discussions were held on various grounds. The fair was open in Kremlin Square. The Craft Quarter near the walls of the Vologda Kremlin wh ere the masters demonstrated their skills and told about peculiarities of their crafts was among the most interesting.

Sergey Tokarev, boatman from Kirillov, was awarded the Grand Prix of the festival instituted by Vologda’s Mayor Yevgeny Shulepov. He was given the cup in the shape of the festival symbol – the forged lion – and a money prize in the amount of 100 thousand roubles.