On June 29 and 30, 2024, the sixth international festival of ethnic music “EtoEtno will be held in St. Petersburg.
The open air festival will be held on the territory of the Kronverk Strait of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The headliners are the Zventa Sventana project, singer Irakli, virtuoso guitarist, composer Didyulya and popular Balkan performer Marko Markovich. Admission to the festival is free.
The open air festival “EtoEtno” introduces the audience to the best examples of modern ethnic music, which is becoming more and more popular every year. For creative people, music in the ethno style is a search for self-identification and a demonstration of their own culture: at the festival, musicians from different countries present original folk compositions in modern processing. Ethnic motifs are wonderfully combined with classical performance, jazz, blues, rap and other musical trends. Traditionally, there are many young artists among the participants of the festival, playing in the ethno style and creating a bright kaleidoscope of melodies understandable for their generation.
The sixth Ethnic Music Festival “TEtoEtno” engages young people and promotes the development of human capital, maximizing the awareness of young people and older people about the unique intercultural and interethnic palette of folk music and national instruments of Russia and the world.
Within the framework of the sixth international festival “EtoEtno”, the organizers have prepared a large-scale musical program. St. Petersburg, as a multinational tolerant city with different colors in its cultural palette, will act as an inviting
and unifying party for artists from Serbia, China, Armenia, Georgia and other countries.
The festival “TEtoEtno” starts on June 29. The headliner of the first day of the festival will be virtuoso guitarist Didyulya, who together with his team will present fragments of the new concert program “Unique Instrumental Show”. Stylistic and genre intonations of different peoples of the world can be heard in the composer’s music. These are Chinese folk motifs, spicy Oriental, and Slavic fervor. Not a single word will be heard from the stage at the concert, as the language of instrumental music is understandable to viewers of all countries and continents. The festival will be decorated with the performance of the popular Moscow folklore dance project “Zventa Sventana” – the group of Tina Kuznetsova (finalist of the project “The Voice”) and Yuri Usachev (ex “Guests from the Future”). The team rethinks folklore and adapts it for the modern listener, weaving folk songs with dance electronics and indie pop.
Also on the first day of the festival, the Omsk singer “DRUMMATIX” will take the stage, which quickly gained popularity simultaneously on the Russian hip-hop, ethno and alternative scene. The songs of “DRUMMATIX” range from shamanic hip-hop to ethno, from juicy beats to piercing lyrics. According to numerous requests from the audience, the team from Kazan Hop Vorga, performing music in the Slavic-Scandinavian style, as well as the opera singer from China Peng Yinglai, will again take part in the project. Yakut singer and actress Valentina Romanova-Chyskyray with her project Sakha Jazz will create on stage a mix of modern elements of jazz, rock music and the ancient style of performing Yakut songs. The rhythms of Yakut percussion instruments, the charming melody of the khomus, the imitation of bird singing and the sounds of nature will sound. The first day of the festival could not remain without the performance of Serbian musicians: on June 29, the incendiary band “Shukar trio” (ex The No Smoking Orchestra) will appear on the stage. It starts at 17.00.
On June 30, the popular Serbian musician, ethnic music star, trumpeter Marko Markovic and his Big Brass Band will perform at this event again. Musicians have been shining on the festival stage for two years in a row: combining Balkan ethnic motifs with an original modern sound, the artists demonstrate the beauty of ethnic music and its unifying sound for all generations.
The bright accent of the second day of the festival will be the performance of the popular Russian musician of Georgian origin Irakli. Also this evening, the festival will feature the Serbian female duo Sestri Gobovic, the musical ethno groups “POLE” and “Yoga Go Ethno” from St. Petersburg, the famous folk band “Otava E” and the Armenian sextet “The Old Man and the Sea”, experimenting in the field of modal music based on Armenian folk songs in unique author’s arrangements. It starts at 17.00.
Ethnic music is a way of national self-identification, provides an opportunity to demonstrate one’s own culture and develops a sense of respect for the culture of other peoples. The festival “This is It” is a unique intercultural and interethnic palette of folk music and national instruments of Russia and the world. The project helps to develop a sense of tolerance and patriotism, arouses sincere interest in the culture of another nation, contributes to the preservation and revival of national musical culture, and appeals to its origins.
The art director of the festival is the president of the United Serbian Diaspora in St. Petersburg, famous producer Mirko Radenovich.
The festival is supported by the Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg.
The festival “EtoEtno” will demonstrate all the beauty and originality of ethnic music — music that makes it possible to show the national culture of different countries on a large scale, brightens the world around with the brightest colors. The festival will bring the joy of meeting talented famous as well as young musicians and will become one of the most memorable summer events in the Northern Capital, which turns into one big festival in high season.
The international Festival of Ethnic Music “EtoEtno” was first held in St. Petersburg in 2019 and had a huge audience success and wide coverage in the press and social networks. The first ethnic music festival “This is It”, headlined by famous Balkan musicians Emir Kusturica and Goran Bregovic, showed considerable interest in the project – all concerts were accompanied by sold-out shows. According to estimates, the festival was attended by 20 thousand people. In 2020-2021. Despite the difficulties associated with the restrictions caused by the spread of COVID-19, the festival “This is It” took place and was held at a high level. Live broadcasts have become one of the formats of the second and third ethnic music festival “This is It”. Online broadcasts of the festival concerts in the official VKontakte project group were watched by more than 8 thousand people. In 2022, the festival returned to the offline format and was held at a high level. In 2023, 22 thousand people visited the project. They witnessed the farewell concert of the iconic film director and musician Emir Kusturica and his band The No Smoking Orchestra.
