Festival of Mountain Professions in Ukraine

2017/10/22

On 20-21 October 2017 the International Festival of Mountain Professions took place for the first time in the village Myhovo, Vyzhnytsia district. It united the representatives from France, Poland as well as Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia regions. According to the representatives of the French delegation, the International Festival of Mountain Professions was started in 1994 in France and it is held in turns in Chambery (France) and a country that has mountainous territories. The previous country that hosted the festival was Romania, it was held in France in 2016. Then Ukraine participated in it for the first time and it received an honored right to prepare and host such a festival.

The shining beginning of the festival was ensured by the display of models of the Vyznytsia College of Applied Art, folk dances performed by the students of Vyzhnytsia Art School. Thus the participants of the event were expected to have an interesting and exciting program. Particularly, the round table meeting, panel discussions, competitions of mountain rescue squads. Furthermore, the representatives of delegations had a chance to try Carpathian tea, get acquainted with manufacturers of ecologically clean products, see the products of art studios and travel agencies, visit workshops and exhibitions of folk art craftsmen.

The round table “Tourism as a Factor of Economic Development of the Region: Best Practices, Touchstones, Prospects” was organized within the framework of the Festival. Much attention was drawn to cross border projects realized in Bukovyna within the framework of the program “Romania – Ukraine – Republic of Moldova”. Especially, it was highlighted in the speeches of Tetiana Tatarchuk (head of Chernivtsi Center of Local Self-Governance Development), Mariia Porchuk (manager of Chernivtsi Business Center), Zhanna Buchko (associate professor of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University). The manager of tourist-information center Kateryna Strazhyr spoke about the work of the center, which had been recently established in Vinnytsia. The participants of the round table discussed the issues of the development of the mountainous territories, tourist attractiveness, state and prospects of the development of inclusive tourism in Ukraine, etc. During panel discussions the Development Strategy of the Carpathian region and the expansion of cooperation with EU were discussed.

The head of the Regional State Administration Ruslan Senchuk thanked everyone who participated in this festival and expressed his beliefs that round tables, discussions and conferences would create an opportunity to establish partner relations between the representatives of authorities, experts of mountain professions, share experience as to mountain crafting professions. At the end of the first festival day the participants enjoyed the folklore program “Hutsulski zabavy”.