An open festival of bard songs, poetry, and visual arts Vitebsky Listopad 2018 will take place on 18-21 October. The festival is expected to gather musicians, poets, and performers from nine countries, BelTA has learned.

The art festival will take place in the cultural capital of Belarus once again. Apart from Belarusians guests from Germany, Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine, and Estonia are expected to participate in it.

The festival will begin with the presentation of an exhibition by Alexander Malei and a performance by the youth theater Koleso on 18 October. A tournament of poets will be arranged in the art gallery Dukhovsky Kruglik. Any participant of the festival and even a member of the jury can participate in it. Competitors will have to recite one piece of poetry of their own. The jury will name the top five poets and will choose the winner from them. A selection of poetry by the winner will be published in the Gomel magazine Metamorfozy. Apart from that, representatives of other magazines, including foreign ones, will select favorite authors and will publish their works. Authors of the literature website Stihi.lv will participate in the Vitebsky Listopad festival for the first time.

On contest days the jury will name the best in several nominations such as free poetry, humor poetry, classic bard songs performed by authors, poetic recital, vocal art, and other ones. Laureates of all the nominations will demonstrate their talents during a gala concert in the concert hall Vitebsk at 19:00 on 20 October.

The festival's program also features non-competitive events. The bard Alexander Bal will perform on the second day of the festival, 19 October, on the eve of his jubilee. A literature concert and a concert by the poet and musician Mikhail Rubin will take place on the final day of the festival.

BELARUSIAN NEWS