By Ilona Krasutskaya: This year’s Slavic Bazaar Festival is featuring a record-breaking number of participants from 40 countries and at least 100,000 guests.
The opening ceremony was traditionally attended by the President. This time, in his welcoming address to the guests and participants of the festival, Alexander Lukashenko spoke a lot about unity. Over a quarter century, the forum has brought together audiences from five continents.
Following the ceremony, Alexander Lukashenko presented the Union State Prize in Literature and Art and the annual special award Through Art to Peace and Mutual Understanding. This year, it went to the National Academic Concert Orchestra under Mikhail Finberg.
The festival, which has rightly acquired the status of a national brand, is also called the Art Olympics. This is very symbolic, because among its projects are children’s and adult competitions
The festivities in Vitebsk will last until18 July. Tonight, the Summer Amphitheatre will host a concert of popular Belarusian and Russian artists.












