Toi Kazan gourmet festival held in Almaty

Toi Kazan gourmet festival united foodies, book lovers and fans of ethnic music on September 19 at the Alatau skiing biathlon complex in Almaty despite the rainy weather, Tengrinews reports.

This year, the annual festival was dedicated to the celebration of the 550th anniversary of Kazakh Khanate, 20th anniversary of the Constitution and 20th anniversary of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan.

The festival brought together over 1000 people despite the rainy and windy cold autumn weather.

According to Beknur Kisikov, one of the organizers of Toi Kazan festival, the event exceeded expectations: "We were worried that too few people will come because of the weather. But it turned out that nothing could stop the citizens of Kazakhstan. Around 1300 people came to the festival," he said.

After the welcoming speech the festival started with a presentation of Kazakhstan's national horse-riding tradition Kyz Kuu - a traditional game where a young man had to chase a girl on horseback and kiss her, or get whipped with a horse whip for failing the challenge. Audaryspak and Kume Alu games were also part of the show.

Guests of the festival were offered various traditional dishes prepared by local chefs. The main dish of Toi Kazan is traditionally beshparmak, boiled meat with noodles and onion sauce.

In addition, guests of the festival were offered Uigur food - exotic langman noodles made in Zhanrkent and Khoshan styles. Dishes like Samarkand plov (rice with meat) and deserts like tatar chak-chak were also prepared at Toi Kazan. Rumi restaurant prepared an exclusive plov and Korean House brought Korean dishes.

Spanish paella with sea food was also very popular at the food festival.

Toi Kazan also organized a competition for the best national costume. The competition was open for everybody.

TengriFM national radio station brought a participant of The Spirit of Tengri ethnic music festival Radik Tyulyush with his Khuun-Khuur-Tu band.

Photos courtesy of Toi Kazan organizers 

Kitapfest, book festival, was held aduring Toi Kazan. Kazakhstani authors and bloggers Kazbek Beisenbayev, Ayan Kudaikulov, Kanat Tasibekov, Beknur Kisikov, Maxim Bartnev, Aizhan Khamit, Yuriy Serebryanskiy and Madi Rakhimov conducted master classes.    

"One of the goals of the festival is to step up exchange of useful books, so that city dwellers exchange books with other book lovers instead of throwing away the books they finish reading. Unfortunately, today people are becoming more and more laconic and technological leaving no space for books (…). That is why we have created a platform where each and every book can find a place. You can bring your books to Toi Kazan to exchange them," Beknur Kisikov, the organizer of the festival said.

Toi Kazan festival was supported by Almaty Oblast Akimat and the main sponsor of the festival Bekker and K.

By Gyuzel Kamalova