Versatile palette of the nations in Kyiv. OUTLOOK WORLD CULTURE FESTIVAL gathered guests and friends for the fourth time

On the 7-th of October in Column hall of Kyiv city council it was the fourth festival of international cultures. OUTLOOK WORLD CULTURE FESTIVAL represented the culture of nearly 40 countries, and 35 embassies of foreign states and expat communities participated in the event.

Half an hour before the event the hall was totally full with visitors who wanted to join the event. Ukraine is quite hospitable, and we (being the organizers) along with Kyiv City Council wanted to greet everybody with the true national atmosphere. The folk melodies performed by the ensemble of bandura players of Glier Kyiv Institute of Music under the creative guidance of Irina Rodionova and ensemble of folk song ‘Kalinovyy Gai’ (the head if A. Lisich) became the starting point to begin the festival. The official part included sports and choreograph ensemble ‘Vizinova’ that prepared great performance with Ukrainian flags especially for our holiday.

The greeting speeches before cutting the red ribbon were addressed to the public from the organizers and diplomats.

The organizer of the festival and its inspirer general director of the project Darya Karyakina told words of gratitude to the co-organizer of the current festival Kyiv social council for the absolute support, as well as participants who volunteered in making good for others. As well, she gratified the partners of the event for help aimed at fulfillment of our ideas and gave such an important event to Ukrainians. This year we were supported by Directorate-General for Rendering Services to Diplomatic Missions, Kyiv youth center, shopping mall ‘Epicenter’, industrial building group ‘Kovalska’, building company ‘Liko Holding’, state enterprise ‘Crimean house’, volunteer project ‘Global Youth’, gallery of authentic Ukrainian clothes ‘Ukraina Antiqua’.

‘We are glad to make the bright holiday of cultures and nations for the fourth time. We are convinced that values which we promote in the course of our events are shared by all people around the world. Kindness, open-heartedness, desire to be aware of something new, and mutual respect is the way to the peace and unity. This year our event attracted attention of so many people that a large queue arrayed from those who wanted to visit the festival. It defines that Ukrainians are easy-going and open to the world. Such a number of the festival participants show the respect of other states to Ukraine. It is hard to expect for better result’, noticed organizer of OUTLOOK WORLD CULTURE FESTIVAL Darya Karyakina.

On behalf of diplomatic service the Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Palestina Mohammed Al Assadta, and Uzbekistan Alisher Abdualiev gave speeches. They remarked the role of the civil society representatives and, particularly, project OUTLOOK in organization of the events that make a significant contribution in the building of friendly relationships between the states.

The words of gratitude were addressed to Kyiv city council that is considered as hospitable platform for diplomatic services for many years. It meets the need of demonstration of the cultural peculiarities of different nations.

In his turn, the deputy Kyiv city head Vladimir Prokopiv noted in his speech that Kyiv and Kyiv city council are willing to support such events demonstrating that our capital is the center of mutual respect, tolerance, and friendship with other nations.

This time along with Kyiv city council OUTLOOK WORLD CULTURE FESTIVAL joined the arrangement of European week of local democracy, common European event organized by the local and regional authorities from 47 countries – members of European Council and dedicated to the date of assignment of European Charter on local self-regulation of 1985.

At the festival in the center of Column hall the ‘Garden of values’ was created. The visitors of the event chose the most appreciable values printed in the shape of chestnut, the symbol of Kyiv, and put the leaves on the branches of decorative trees. In such a way, till the end of the festival totally created a symbolical alley.

The chance to start the ceremony was given to the Ambassadors and honorable guests of the festival who in a course of official part were the first to decorate trees with the tablets that contained the names of the countries. In such a way they showed their desire to share such values as respect, tolerance, friendship, success, partnership, obligation, development…

The red ribbon of the festival was cut by the Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Korea, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Argentina, Iran, Pakistan, Palestine, Finland, Iraq, Tajikistan, Malaysia, Lebanon, Belarus, Montenegro, Vietnam, the heads of diplomatic missions of Kyrgyzstan and Sudan, diplomats from the embassy of Romania, Turkmenistan, UAE, Hungary, Bulgaria, India, Mexico.

During the event the visitors had possibility to get more familiar with cultural peculiarities of the nations, such as Australia, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bulgaria, Ghana, Guinea, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, India, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Cameroon, Kenya, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Moldova, UAE, Pakistan, Romania, Syria, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Montenegro, Japan, Roman, Hawaii, Crimean Tatar and other cultures.

The international trip for the guests started at Kyiv regional administration which dressed up in all the colors of the world because of the bright decorations.

What did Kyiv citizens see during the festival? More than 20 thematic areas organized by the embassies where everybody could not only communicate with the representatives of other nations but also feel the taste and specifics of other cultures. It was possible to put on Palestinian kaffiyeh, create rose, the symbol of Bulgaria, learn to sew Ukrainian carpets or produce pretty toys from the herbs, write your name in Armenian language, see the subtleties of Crimean Tatar patterns in the pottery, decorate your hands with sophisticated mehendi, taste Moldavian placinta and Uzbek plauv, know more about the most gracious animals in the world, Turkmen Ahaltekinsk horses, observe the bright colors of Tajik ornaments, appear in the atmosphere of Kazakh house, feel as the true sheikh in amazing area of Arab Emirates, immerse into African exotic in location of Sudan, play the musical instruments from Indonesian island Yava, decorate the forehead with Indian bindi, as well as try the true Argentinean mate. Surely, there was nothing impossible in the course of our OUTLOOK WORLD CULTURE FESTIVAL!

By the way, do you remember the brightness of Variety Museum! There were posters of Montenegro, Romania, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Korea, Australia, and African world. There were house facilities, clothes elements, and samples of craft. The attention of women was drawn to our exhibition of national costumes from more than 20 countries.

Apart from that, we proposed unusual amusements in the area of workshops. It became so overcrowded when the representatives of Korea demonstrated how to color traditional fans and decorated mask and wrote down Korean letters. Then, beautiful girls from All-Ukrainian association of Muslims taught how to tie the hijab while aboriginal Bangladeshi gave cards with the wishes in Bengalese language.

Also, there were so many delicacies from the embassies. Now Kyiv citizens know what is the taste of Eastern sweets, Middle Asia candies and different plauv.

Four hour of our concert program in non-stop regime moved guests to various continents under the sound of unusual melodies and prominent movements of the exciting dancers. The show of Argentinean tango and Western African drums added impressions and emotions.

The smartest guests of the festival succeeded in taking the presents from the event because the special lottery offered a chance to get the souvenirs from different diplomatic missions. By the way, we give pleasant emotions to those who took the best selfies from the event at our page on Facebook.

We are publishing the first part of photos. Actually, they are thousands. Follow our references at the website and in social media. Perhaps, you will see yourself there.

In the next reportages we will talk about the course of OUTLOOK WORLD CULTURE FESTIVAL 2017 in more details. Right now we would like to gratify everybody who made this holiday possible, particularly, the team of organizers, diplomats, and embassies, expat communities, and partners, volunteers, and guests are made this day bright, kind, and unforgettable. Our dear friends, you are best!