International bagpipe festival will be held in Minsk April 24-27. Attending the festival will be musicians from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria and New Zealand.

Belarus will be represented by such bands as Stary Olsa, Testamentum terrae, Litsvinsky Khmel, Essa, Yavaryna and others. A German band Fidelius is also expected to participate in the festival. A special guest of the event will be a bagpipe musician Liane Barbo from the Estonian band Auli. Apart from the concert in the Minsk concert hall and one of the night clubs, a conference “Preserving bagpipe music traditions in Belarus and the Baltic region” is to be held in line with the festival.

International bagpipe festival has been held in Minsk since 1992. Beginning from 2006, it became annual. The festival is timed to Easter when according to the tradition bagpipe musicians go from house to house playing the instrument and singing songs. The programme of the festival usually includes Belarusian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Galician, Scottish, Swedish and German bagpipe rhythms. All kinds of bagpipe music can be heard at the festival– from traditional folklore to rock music.