International folklore festival of Finno-Ugric peoples opens in Karelia

The first international festival "Traditional Games and Dances of the Finno-Ugric Peoples" opens in the town of Kostomuksha, northern Karelia (north-west of Russia) on Friday.

Specialist at the state committee on nationalities policy of the republic Irina Semakova told RIA Novosti that taking part in the festival will be folklore collectives from Karelia, the Republic of Marii-El, St. Petersburg as well as Estonia and Finland.

According to Semakova, the festival was organised to help artistic collectives from the remote areas to perform on the stage of a big town. The unique traditions of the Finno-Ugric folklore closely connected with the everyday life of these peoples remained precisely in the rural localities. The specific feature of the games and dances of the indigenous peoples of the north is that they can be performed on the concert sites of the cultural environment only. This is why the participants in the festival will give concerts in the streets of Kostomuksha and neighbouring villages.

Several conferences and master-classes are planned to be held to discuss the possibility of preserving the Finno-Ugric folklore. A book devoted to the history and technology of making national costumes will be published after the festival which has been organised with the financial support of the Russian ministry of culture.