27 August 2008
Vitebsk oblast to host culinary and ethnographic festival August 30
A culinary and ethnographic festival “The gifts of woods” will be held in the Rossony region of the Vitebsk oblast on August 30. Attending the festival will be participants of the international biking tour of solidarity with tourist Belarus, BelTA learnt from the public association “Agro- and ecotourism.” Taking part in the festival will be the best culinary experts of the region. The guests will be able to try most delicious dishes made from mushrooms and berries as well as herbal teas, take part in the master classes, watch the performance of folk groups and have a good time. Apart from that, the guests may be interested in seeing the unique historic monument located in the Rossony region - the famous Rogneda burial mound, where according to the legend the Polotsk duke Rogvolod and his daughter Rogneda were buried. In August volunteers from seven countries gathered in Belarus to take part in the international biking tour titled “Tour of solidarity with Belarus” that is held along ecological corridors and green routes of Belarus. Volunteers from Poland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain and Great Britain accompanied by Belarusian biking amateurs are going to cover 900 kilometers crossing Belarus from the south-west to the north-east. The route of the tour goes along the so-called ecological corridors – the zones of animal migration and concentration of biological diversity. The bikers will visit or have already visited conservation areas, Belarusian agrotourist mansions, historical monuments. One of the brightest events of the international biking tour was the Belarusian-style wedding of the two participants of the tour. The wedding was organized by the Belarusian experts of ethnography and folklore. The goal of the project is to promote agro- and ecotourism, draw the attention to this kind of tourism, let the local population and tourists derive benefits from it, establish contacts between local population and visitors, reduce the negative impact of tourism on the environment.