The bank of Chigirinskoe reservoir, in the Bykhov District, rather resembles the seaside. It recently hosted the 7th International Bard Music and Fishing Festival

The bank of Chigirinskoe reservoir, in the Bykhov District, rather resembles the seaside. It recently hosted the 7th International Bard Music and Fishing Festival, gathering about 5,000 tourists and musicians from nine countries, including Belarus, Russia Ukraine, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Israel and, for the first time, Germany and Chile.


More than a hundred singers arrived, eager to share their folk songs, including those often rendered by hikers and camping enthusiasts. Of course, there was also plenty of opportunity to catch, cook and eat fish!

The Chairman of the organising committee, Sergey Kulyagin, remarked on the success of the event.

The guitar and fishing rod are the main symbols of the family festival, which, this year, attracted Moscow’s Psoy Korolenko and Germany’s Tino Eisbrenner. Jiri Vondrak composed ‘Belarus’ for the event, singing in his native Czech language; the audience understood the sentiments perfectly.

For the first time, the event included the ‘Miss Bard Music’ competition, as suggested by the Chairwoman of the Fitness Federation, Natalia Novozhilova. Contestants threw spears at fish, and took part in a creative contest as well as parading in swimsuits made from leaves, flowers, twigs and, even, fishing nets.

Zinaida Afonasenko from Mogilev, a mother of two children, won the title and claims the prize of ten days on the Black Sea coast, for two, donated by Mogilevoblturist.

Alexey Dubovsky won the individual men’s fishing championship, catching fish weighing over 8.5kg in total; the biggest bream in his net weighed 760g. Meanwhile, Svetlana Goncharova, who also caught a handsome bream, weighing more than 700g, took the women’s prize. In the team competition, first prize went to the Combined Feed Plant, from Zhabinka. This year, some novelties were introduced. In addition to the well-liked ‘Guitar’ round, there was the ‘Alternative to Pop Music’ contest. Sweet melodies from the accordion, bass and gentle violin sailed over Chigirinka...