Tyumen region's largest fair took place at Tobolsk's Bazarnaya Square
8 august 2023
The Siberia's Craftsmen festival in Tobolsk attracted more than 150 accomplished artisans from 12 of Tyumen Oblast's municipal districts. It was reported that the venue of the festival that was sponsored by SIBUR's social investment program, the Formula for Good Deeds, was visited by more than 6,000 Tobolsk residents and guests of the city.
More than 2,000 city residents and guests took part in the fair’s 40 master classes dedicated to various arts and crafts. These numbers have placed the Siberia's Craftsmen fair at the top of the list of similar events held in the region.
Elena Shtol, a doll maker from Tyumen:
"The organizers had set for themselves a very high bar, given that the festival brought together craftsmen from across the entire Tyumen Oblast. And it all turned out to be a success! Everything was top-notch. We had a lot of fun, people got engaged in countless creativity master classes, there were numerous music and dance areas, one could taste herbal teas poured from a real steaming samovar, it was really homely, with a great atmosphere and with everyone dressed to the occasion. Despite the fact that I attended the festival as a craftswoman myself and presented my own artwork, I had a great pleasure to walk through the vendors' stalls, admired the work of other fellow craftsmen and even bought a few things to add to my own collection".
8 master craftsmen worked together with the festival's visitors to co-create an art object titled TOBOLSK in the form of 1.5-meter-tall letters created in different styles. They were hand decorated, hacked out with an axe and sprayed with a coat of paint.
T - macramé by Tatiana Kurochkina
O - plaster bas-reliefs by Marina Ishmukhametova
Б - Khokhloma painting by Ekaterina Karaseva
O - airbrush painting by Elena Shishkina
Л - axe woodcarving by Anton Azhermachev
Ь - Karmatsky-style interior wall painting by Vera Bykova
C - Tatar ornament by Asiya Zakoryukina
K - calligraphy by Snezhanna Suslova
Vera Bykova, an expert in Karmatsky-style wall painting, worked together with the fair's visitors to decorate a window casing provided by the residents of Tobolsk's Nizhny Posad to a Tobolsk-based nonprofit organization Goodwill. The project became a truly popular endeavor uniting local community activists, local authorities and common townsfolk. Working together, Tobolsk residents dried, primed and painted the casing, giving it a second lease on life. At the fair, the decorative casing was painted in the style of the Ural-Siberian house painting under the direction of the folk artisan Vera Bykova.
Vera Bykova, a researcher and promoter of traditional Tyumen (Karmatsky-style) house painting, People's Craftswoman with Russia’s Union of Artists, Tyumen:
"You have helped me realize my ultimate dream! I had long wanted to return to our streets our traditional art of house painting!!!! May this beauty stay with us and bring joy to our fellow townspeople every day! Let our children behold it and grow up kind and happy as result!".
Led by master craftsman Evgeny Popov, local adults and children built a mockup of a city using 100 kilograms of clay. More than 200 people were ultimately involved not only in building the city and populating it with its inhabitants, but also in making up fairy tales and stories, thus contributing to the revival of the traditional Russian art of storytelling.
More than 100 professional artists and guests of the festival took to the festival's stage. The contest of Hero Warriors featuring reenactors in armor with swords and shields brought together the strongest and bravest men who vied for the top prize - a big war hammer. Meanwhile, beautiful girls from Tobolsk and Tyumen, under the supervision of Valentina Karnaukhova, a master seamstress and gold embroiderer from Tyumen, got up on the stage for the contest of Princesses. Among them, a mother with her two daughters from Tyumen who had traveled to Tobolsk specifically to attend the contest. A young participant from Tobolsk was awarded a unique bespoke headdress, the kokoshnik. The festival also featured a presentation of a new apparel collection from OlinRush themed after the city's The Key to Siberia brand.
Valentina Karnaukhova, an expert craftswoman, restorer of historical accessories and gold embroidery practitioner, Tyumen:
"This was the second display of my accessories on the Bazarnaya Square's stage. It was all complete adlibbing, but vivid and catchy. More than twenty gorgeous women wore the kokoshniks. One family even traveled all the way from Tyumen to attend the show! Tobolsk had never seen such a concentration of princesses in one single day! It was both delightful and remarkable that the beauties of Tobolsk are so closely familiar with the modern-day kokoshnik headbands; in fact, this accessory is more familiar to them than it is to the residents of Tyumen".
5 hours of music and dancing in the Music Circle. Groups from across various municipalities of the Tyumen region gave their performances at the festival, including young spoon players from Bizino, Ishim’s singers of humorous ditties performed to the accompaniment of a button accordion, artists from Zavodoukovsk singing Russian folk songs. The sounds of cello, violin, accordion, cittern and bagpipes could be heard coming from the stage. At the end of the evening, the fest's guests danced during an hour-long performance given by the McNab folk band.
Traveling minstrels (the skomorokhi) and stilt walkers were running the show at the Circle of Fun. Experts representing The Russian Traditions, a Surgut-based non-profit dedicated to the preservation and development of culture, started a big circle dance. As it turns out, circle dances don’t have to be only danced in a circle! The visitors of the festival learned how to dance Russian circle dances, the quadrille, as well as play circle-dancing, kissing, and thread-needle games. Guests of the circle of Tyumen's AltynOok masters were taught how to shoot with a bow and arrows and to handle a nagayka whip with an utmost finesse.
Gulya Kozlenko, a festival guest:
"At mass events there is usually a stage, speakers, and a crowd. But here the crowd started to morph into a true nation! Those who went circle dancing were no longer onlookers, they were no longer the mob, they were a people! One might think that a circle dance is about standing in a circle, holding hands and running in a certain direction? Come on, our ancestors were more ingenious than that. So, the residents of Tobolsk tried to replicate what everyone - from the little ones to the oldest in any village - all used to know how to do. And with such a gusto! Some even jumped up and down from excitement. While the people managed the circle dance reasonably well, the quadrille turned out to be a bit tougher for them. I really hope that this is not the last such of such events, and that we will see more of folk dances in the future!”
For the second year already the big marquee of fairy tales, music, theater and creativity has been gathering a full house. The art marquee of the Spiridon's House and the Magpie's Tracks became a temporary home to a large and close-knit team of artisans from Tobolsk. This is where the character of Petrushka gave a performance with his troupe, while the craftsmen at the workshop of fanciful musical instruments taught visitors to play the ocarina, right here at the festival. This is also where delicious cookies were being baked, with guests drawn in to the aroma of the cinnamon.
The blacksmith shop featuring a pedigree blacksmith Anton Kozlov and his apprentices was located next to the marquee and welcomed guests interested in a master class on forging nails. Craftsman Anton Azhermachev hacked a traditional wooden toy using his axe in front of the amazed crowd.
The Circle of Health taught everyone how to take care of one's body, shared stories about wellness practices, served tea brewed out of fragrant Siberian herbs, and demonstrated the practice of standing on nails. The lines to the craftsmen’s circles did not break off until the very end of the event.
At the Circle of Childhood, children in attendance were entertained by the circle's animators, practiced shooting at a shooting gallery, crafted chocolate together with the participants of the Tobolsk Chocolate project, rode electric minicars and merry-go-rounds, played in a puppet theater at a master class run by the "Chest of Fairy Tales" theater, and drew funny faces on aqua makeup.
Zukhra Abaidulina with the Chest of Fairy Tales puppet theater, Tobolsk:
"The festival came out vibrant, filled with events and unforgettable both for guests and for the craftsmen!".