How was the festival "Ostroh - Renaissance"

May 16, 2018

The "Ostroh-Renaissance" festival takes place for the third time. It is dedicated to the preservation of the cultural heritage. The event lasted from 11th to 13th May.

It should be noted that the historic and cultural festival was opened by Myroslav Skoryk, who has become the Doctor Honoris Causa of the Ostroh Academy. Also, on the first day, an exhibition of sculptures of the Ukrainian artist from the United States Mirtala Pylypenko and a collage exhibitions “Spysok Vidtvorennia” (“Playlist”) of Yuliia Fedorovych were held.

The theme of the second day was the book, and the Museum of the Book, which operates in the city, became the main location. During the festival visitors were able to buy books of well-known authors from the bouquinistes, to spend time talking and enjoying fresh air, to visit the exhibition of unique handmade books by the master from Rivne Olena Medviedieva.

In addition, the guests of the festival were amazed by the book publishing industry expert Valentyn Kolontai who spoke about the details of book designing, its reconstruction, and the manufacture of parchment at home. Also, the young quest from Lviv held a calligraphy master class available for all visitors, and everyone was able to create his\her own picture.

During a theatrical production that took place at the Museum of the Book, participants of the festival were convinced that the museum exposition could be well worth a visit. A monk and a violinist from the Renaissance came to life in front of the audience; and precisely this format enabled the audience to pick up interesting information about the history of the book, feeling the atmosphere of that time.

The highlight of the second day was the musical and theatrical production from the "Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre" Centre from Lublin, which took place in the Great Synagogue. Stories were perfomed by Vitold Dombrovski and musician Robert Bzhozovski. The play was prepared on the basis of works of the Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer and the chief rabbi of Ostroh Maarshal Shlomo Luriia (1550s). For visitors was also presented an animated video that showed the reviving of Ostroh Synagogue.

“We have not accidentally chosen the theme of the festival; preservation of cultural heritage is the official theme in the culture of our country this year. We have a lot of things to retain, but so far we do not create the mechanisms or do not take some actions for this; accordingly, with this theme of the event, we would like to remind that our town is one of the cultural centers in our country, and we have to work very actively in order to preserve the cultural heritage. The subject of the event – the book – is not also chosen by chance, because there is the wonderful museum with a similar name in the town, this is our heritage too, and we wanted to attract attention to it. We realize that people still pay attention to the festival, they know that it is happening, and we are working on expanding the audience of the event, at least in order to make them tell other citizens what interesting things are presented this year, and tell that they will come here in a year”, says one of the organizers of the festival, the head of the Tourist Information Center Olesia Hoshchuk.

The location of the third day was Zamkova Hora hill, where the guests of festival had an artistic space for recreation: there were a masters’ alley, a fair, photo and sport zones, zones for children, and master classes. In addition, all those activities happened on the background of musical performances of families from Ostroh, students of the Ostroh Children's Art School.

“We carefully prepared for the performance, constantly improving the presentation of the performance. It is not the first time we have taken part in the festival, we really like it; for me, this festival is a fantastic and cool event, and such celebrations have to be organized more often”, shares her thoughts a member of the family duo “Anna Ta Liuba Dubkovykh” from Ostroh.

During the performance of the Velykoradohoshchanska Sich which is formed on the basis of the Velykoradohoshchanska Middle School of General Education  under the direction of Ivan Havriluk, guests were able to experience the fighting spirit of the Hopak. Young Cossacks revived the pristine spirit of genuine army, demonstrating good physical training and strength of the will.

As well, for the guests performed the lyrist Andrii Liashuk, and the group "Shpyliasti Kobzari" (Kyiv) presented folk compositions with kobza, giving them a modern-day charm.

The completion of the third festival day was marked by the performance of the creative group "Kniazha Zabava" that presented a medieval dance, as well as a fire show.

The organizers of the festival are the National University of Ostroh Academy, the project "Mystetski Ekspedytsii" and the Ostroh Town Council.

It should be noted that the general partner of the event is the online shop-service "MOYO.UA". The official partner is the tour operator "Kniazhyi Ostroh" ("Merezhyvo Mandriv"), as well as the shopping and service center "Vint".