President: 'Slavianski Bazaar has always been more than a cultural event'

President: 'Slavianski Bazaar has always been more than a cultural event. It is like a mirror of our history. Not only the history of sovereign Belarus, but the history of the entire world, and not only the cultural world.

Its idea was born when the world was changing. At a time when, to put it mildly, singing was the last priority. Peoples who had recently been one family were learning to live separately. Not everyone understood our desire to organize such a large-scale festival. There were too many serious unresolved issues — political, economic, social — both for us Belarusians and for our closest neighbors, Russians and Ukrainians, first and foremost. But the festival was needed by the people.'