SOUTH KAZAKHSTAN REGION – Lovers of guitar poetry from Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan gathered recently in the south of Kazakhstan for the South Wind 2014 festival.
The event was organised by the regional Department of Tourism Association Centre for Tourism Industry of the South Kazakhstan Region, the regional Slavic ethno-cultural centre, with the support of the akimat (administration) of the region.
Kenes Ismailov, chairman of the festival’s main jury, said that South Wind is an attempt to revive the bard movement. The last large-scale competition of this type, Burgulyuk-89, was held a quarter century ago.
The picturesque coastline of Arys River was chosen as the venue for the festival. Dozens of participants from Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan competed in four categories. The largest category, which was known as “full author” and included the largest number of competitors who performed their own music and lyrics was won by Alexey Valeyev from the bard club Backpack from Aktobe.
Makhsat Rysimbetov from Shymkent won the category “Composer.” Stepan Patrashkov from Almaty was the best among performers in Russian and Erzhan Tazhmakov took second place among performers in the Kazakh language. No first place was awarded in this category. And Andrey Radchenko from Shymkent won the Grand Prix of the festival.
