10 Novem­ber 2019 took place the III Ukrain­ian Fes­ti­val organ­ised by @Ukrainian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa with the sup­port of @embrsa / @Публічна дипломатія and @Knorhoek Wine Farm!

South Africans had an oppor­tu­ni­ty to immerse them­selves in Ukrain­ian cul­ture and tra­di­tions. On the main stage you could see some of the unique tra­di­tion­al Ukrain­ian instru­ments: tsym­baly played by @Petro skazkiv and ban­dura played by @Nadia Pry­i­mak and @Svitlana Neil. There was poet­ry read­ings by @Oksana Rozum­na and @ Joseph Koet­si­er. And a diverse mix of music: Дивина ensem­ble with Donet­sk region folk songs, Dra­gana Jev­tovic with Liam Pitch­er, Anton­i­na Darienko, @Tommy Dell, Iri­na Tulis, Svet­lana Sheremet, and  even our own Ukrain­ian-South African band! Kids from Ukrain­ian school in Cape Town per­formed Maria Bur­ma­ka song “Volokhatiy pavu­chok”.

You could learn Ukrain­ian folk danc­ing that was acces­si­ble for any lev­el and all ages as well as enjoy watch­ing pro­fes­sion­als: Hopak per­formed by Olek­sii Ishchenko and mod­ern dance by Katy Aleshy­na.

Our most pre­cious and full loca­tion through­out the day (apart from the kitchen 😊) was mas­ter­class­es where chil­dren and adults could learn Ukrain­ian tra­di­tion­al crafts: Petrykiv­ka paint­ing by @Tatiana Hurn, Doll-mak­ing and Bird-paint­ing by @Дивина, learn how to make varenyky by our expert @suzi dav­ey, learn about Ukrain­ian sci­ence and par­tic­i­pate in exper­i­ments by @Kateryna Koshkid­ko, solve quest on Ukrain­ian his­to­ry and cul­ture or learn what it takes to be a Cos­sack at Cos­sacks games!

A sep­a­rate loca­tion was Ukrain­ian art where you could see incred­i­ble copies of sev­en thou­sands old Tryp­il­lia sculp­tures, enjoy the exhi­bi­tion “Ukrain­ian Safari” by famous Ukrain­ian artist Katery­na Pry­i­machenko, and see paint­ing in Petrykiv­ka style by local artist @Tatiana Hurn.

Ukrain­ian fes­ti­val would not be com­plet­ed if there would not be deli­cious Ukrain­ian cui­sine!  Borsch, Varenyky, Hol­ubt­si, Nalysnyky, Uzvar, Salo and many more dish­es enter­tained first com­mers and pleased those who are reg­u­lar com­mers to Ukrain­ian Fes­ti­val in South Africa!

We are grate­ful to our fan­tas­tic team who made this fes­ti­val pos­si­ble: @Zoia Dei, @Anna Ovrakho­va, @Tatiana Hurn, @Tatyana Shili­na, @Svetlana Sheremet, @Olesya Matviyas (Loub­ster), @Katy Aleshy­na, @Ruslana Malichenko, @Antonina Darienko, @Nadia Pry­i­mak, @Alex Kibalenko, @Volodymyr Dei, @Alyona Smith Polovchenko, @Thurlou Kohler, @Chris Haw, @Suzi Humen Dav­ey, @Maryna Lich­man, @Mykola Swys­towych, @Irina Pod­dub­naya, @Hannah Zhukov­ina, @Marta Saipudi­no­va, @Nataliya Pearce, @Donovan Pearce, @Olya Kononenko, @Svitlana Neil, @Valentyna Popovskaya, @Vlada Du Toit, @Nick Bilet­sky, @Nadijka Kyvenko, @Kateryna Koshkid­ko, @Oleksii Ishchenko, @Irina Tulis, @Stephan Kacedan, @Vic Field, @Lyudmyla van Aarde, @Aleksandra Carstens, @Joseph Koet­si­er, @Donovan Hurn

Thank you to every­one who con­tributed in mak­ing it hap­pen! We are already gear­ing up for a big­ger and even bet­ter fes­ti­val in 2020!