Sheshory

Three days in summer, Carpathian mountains and live music
(Sheshory village, Kosiv district, Ivano-Frankivsk region)

In 2004, it seemed we chose the most harmonious artistic disciplines of interaction with the environment — ethnic music in full of its variety and land art.

Sheshory-2004

«On the night of celebration of the pagan festivity of Ivan Kupalа fire meets water, grasses meet stars, people meet incredible creatures and each other. Find yourself in the Carpathian Mountains by the Kupala Flame and feel how the world is born» — we wrote in the announcement of our first festival. And the world was born.

A big stage where the world music stars and family ensembles from surrounding villages performed. The fastest trumpeters in the world, namely Fanfare Ciocărlia. The bright diversity of violinists from different countries who played world-music. Many workshops — local weaving and traditional sculpting of little horses made of cheese, dances and songs from different Ukrainian regions, etc. Land art objects that depend not only on the author’s idea, but also on the natural and human environment. It presents us with a new perception of time-space — some of objects could disappear before the festival began (due to strong wind or human intervention), some of them continued to exist even after the fest had ended.

There were no tickets to visit Sheshory-2004. It was possible to support the festival voluntarily by receiving the CD with the music from the festival stage as a gift. One of the first crowd funding in our country. Other trends that were introduced by Sheshory are environmental friendliness and participativity.

Sheshory-2005

This year the beginning of the festival was postponed from the Kupalа night (July 6/7) to the holiday of St. Peter (July 11). It was the initiative of the locals who are Christian Orthodox in general. Fasting ends on this day, so everyone could join the festival entertainment. Since then the start date has not changed. The concept has not changed either. The festival as an attempt of creative and harmonious coexistence of a person with the outside world, the music of different times and genres, which has ethnic roots, and land art objects.

Sheshory-2006

Blue mountains, fragrant grasses, streams of mountain rivers and positive energy — mountains flow with milk and honey — Carpathian interpretation of the Paradise described in the Bible.

In 2006, the festival the first time had a general topic that covered all components of the program. It was interaction — between man and the environment, between different fields of art, between festivals, countries and cultures, between those who meet in that place at that time. All following years authors of the festival defined the new and new general themes.

A lot of people met in Sheshory that year. Hundreds of people had to stop in traffic jams for several hours, hundreds rested on the bank of the Pistynka river (a big challenge for the organizers was to explain to nudists that bathing being naked is the tradition only for the Epiphany for the locals:), tents placed in the camp and in private yards, concerts lasted until 5 am. It seemed that next year there would be more guests — and it was decided to change the location. Since then, the festival has begun its journey around Ukraine.