Kargopol bell-ringers festival became international

Kargopol is situated in Arkhangelsk oblast. The town which age goes back to early 12th century traditionally gathers the best bell-ringers masters from all-over Russia.

This year, the festival organizers invited the ice sculptors and musicians from Norway and Germany. Sami yoik singers delegated by Riddu-Riddu indigenous festival in Northern Norway were among those who opened the event on the central Cathedral square surrounded by old Russian churches.

Three young Sami singers also made a concert together with the veterans of the traditional Russian folk music – the ensemble “Northern Pearls” (Severnye Zhemchuga).

The festival is held during the orthodox holiday of Epiphany and it is traditionally accompanied by the picturesque religious processions and a ceremony of water consecration. This was naturally followed by the mass swimming in the ice holes of the Onega River thus frustrating the observers.

The idea of giving the festival in Kargopol a “Barents dimension” appeared in the course of the project “Development of Event Tourism in Arkhangelsk oblast and the Northern Norway”.

The project funded by the Barents Secretariat is aimed at mapping the prominent events in the Barents Region which could become new tourists’ attractions both inside the region and abroad. The participation of Sami artists in the “was sponsored also by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.

Text and photos: Andrey Shalyov / Arkhangelsk office of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat