Vytoki in Svetlogorsk: Following the GOST recipe

The first day of the traditional Vytoki sports and cultural festival in Svetlogorsk was memorable for the unique character of this town in Gomel Oblast, its history, and its significant economic potential.

“Despite being considered a young town, Svetlogorsk was founded on the site of the 16th-century settlement of Shatilki. History and modernity are organically intertwined here: the town has strong economic and industrial potential, it cares for the health of residents and visitors, something we will undoubtedly see during the press tour, and later we will also get to know the region’s traditions through its local cuisine,” said BelBrandAudit Director Valentina Dynich.

The town honors its traditions, and the dishes prepared for the Food with Meaning project were made according to Soviet GOST standards.

President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Belarus Viktor Lukashenko also sampled the cuisine from local chefs.

Visitors were greeted with a vibrant musical performance and invited to taste traditional cuisine with an emphasis on strict Soviet recipes presented with local twists: country-style sausage, pancakes, chebureki, roulade, cookies, and kompot.

The StART art interactive in Svetlogorsk brought together a record number of young artists. The town places great importance on the arts, with around 700 children happily taking part in the event.

One of the festival’s most vibrant and colorful projects took place near the park on Kalinin Street.

Together with professional artists, children decorated a roller park, a space for rollerblading, cycling, scootering, and skateboarding. Nearby, an outdoor exercise area was also set up.

To more closely connect cultural heritage with the spirit of sports, folk traditions are traditionally woven into the decorative elements.

This year, the inspiration for painting the skate and roller park came from the unique folk art of straw weaving.

The Vytoki festival in Svetlogorsk was eagerly anticipated. The art interactive created a real buzz and delighted children and their parents. Art teacher Natalya Gorevaya was very pleased that her students took first place in the drawing competition and were able to take part in decorating the roller park.

“Everything is bright, and the children took part. I painted part of the pattern in my favorite color, purple. My students won first place in the contest. Our town organizes great celebrations, but Vytoki is astonishing in its scale. There’s a playground for younger kids nearby, but teenagers had nothing like this. Now they’ll have a place to play sports,” Natalya Gorevaya noted.

“Thanks to painting the roller park, a gift from the NOC of Belarus to the town, we help residents connect with traditional crafts that are being forgotten. This year, the gift is designed in the style of straw weaving, which is one of our traditional crafts, an art that has developed over centuries. We are the only ones in the world to have created such unique decorative architectural forms as iconostasis gates. We want to ensure these crafts are not forgotten,” Liliya Lukashenko said.

Liliya Lukashenko also shared her impressions of Svetlogorsk itself.

“The name of the town speaks for itself, it truly is a very bright town. We have visited many towns and cities across our country, and each is beautiful in its own way. But such an abundance of forest within an urban environment is what makes Svetlogorsk unique. And what is a town without its people? The residents of Svetlogorsk have bright faces, too,” she said.

The first day of the Vytoki festival concluded with a screening of the sports film Turning Point from Belarusfilm. Many residents of the town and visitors to Svetlogorsk gathered at Tsentralnaya Square to watch the film in the warm evening atmosphere.

Press service of the NOC of Belarus

Photos by the NOC of Belarus