5th international festival Water of Life

Siberia's largest city Novosibirsk is hosting a traditional international festival of ethnic cultures Water of Life 2002. It is to be held on the Ob river's quay.

According to the executing manager of the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) in Russia Tatiana Tkachenko, this year's schedule is featuring five major items: "Tuneful Camera" (ethno movie shows), "Non-fiction Photo", "Fest Mashina" (a seminary of art managers), "Independent Laboratory of Culture Journalism" (master classes and discussions) and "Music".

Two stages, one in Novosibirsk and another on Kuzlinskaya ground in the Altai mountains, will feature musicians from Moscow, St. Petersburg and foreign artists from Japan, Turkmenistan, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia.

The Yuri Kondratyuk foundation and Creative Unity 888 are among the organisers of the event. It has gained support from the Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute and Goethe Institute over the last years.

"With the Water of Life festival, we mean to restore the lost links between human and nature," explains Yana Glembotskaya of the Kondratyuk foundation. "Our concept and motto is ethnofuturism, i.e., close attention to ethnically diversified culture."