Craftsmen's fairground to open at the Spirit of Tengri 2015

The 3rd edition of The Spirit of Tengri will turn the Abay square into an ethnic and cultural fairground. The biggest ethnic music festival in Central Asia opens on June 6 at 7:00 pm at the square in front of the Republic Palace (crossing of Abay and Dostyk streets). The open air concert will continue on June 7 at the same time. Besides the music and the atmosphere, the visitors of the music festival will enjoy the craftsmen’s fair. The designers and craftsmen will be presenting the best pieces of hand made accessories, clothing and other products.

Elina Altynbekova, a designer at the Scientific Restoration Laboratory told Tengri FM that the festival grounds would be decorated with various sculptures created by famous masters. The festival does not only bring ethnic music from different countries, but it also aims to familiarize everyone with cultures of various nations through craft and handmade products.

“We are opening a miniature fairground of craftsmen such as Serzhan Bashirov, Zeinelkhan Mukhametzhan, Seva Demidov, Masha Aitkalieva, Katya Khalanskaya, Yuliya Pecherskaya and others will be presenting their ceramics, jeweler, embroider pictures, hats and other things. We will also install copies of Old Turkik stelas to support the theme of the festival,” Altynbekova said.

Dauren Kasteev, a well-known Kazakh artists and a grandson of the prominent Kazakh painter Abylkhan Kasteev is preparing T-shirts with his unique print. The limited edition T-shirts will be sold only during the festival. “The print is a painting of a warrior on a horse. It is dedicated to this festival. The t-shirts will be sold only at the festival and most likely only this year. (…) The t-shirts are very beautiful,” Altynbekova said.

Moreover, collection edition DVDs of last year festival will be also sold at the fair. Besides, the fan zone will be larger this year.

Musicians from 11 countries are participating in The Spirit of Tengri this year. Kazakhstani bands Arkaiym and Tigrakhaud are opening the third edition of the festival. The highlights are Kazakhstani ethnic musician Yedil Khussainov and the ethnic jazz band Satzhan Project. In addition, artists who have already won the hearts of the local audience such as throat singer Radik Tyulyush, Turkish band BabaZula, Georgian band The Shin, Chyltys Tannasheva from Mountain Shoriya and Kazakhstani Aldaspan and Sharapat will be also performing at the festival.

The newcomers are TRAD.ATTACK from Estonia, Hanggai from China and Hungarian singer Tilla Torok with HoldViola band. Norwegian musicians who worked with famous ethnic singer Mari Boine Persen for more then 10 years will perform with Namgar from Buryatia in a joint project called Nordic Namgar.

The festival is organized by TengriFM national radio station and Kaspi bank.

by Gyuzel Kamalova