MINSK, 3 June (BelTA) – President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Belarus Viktor Lukashenko spoke about the plans for the sports and cultural festival Vytoki this year in an interview to Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA has learned.
One should look back to the history of the event in order to understand the reason behind the choice of Pruzhany as a venue for this year's festival edition, Viktor Lukashenko said.
“When we first decided on this festival, we were nearly the only ones to hold an event of such a scale. It may sound immodest, but I think that Vytoki has contributed a lot to the development of sports and cultural life in the country. People visit the festival with great pleasure,” the head of the NOC of Belarus said.
A total of more than 359,000 people visited the Vytoki festival in 19 cities of Belarus so far.
“We could hardly find a place for our festival. There are a lot of festivals held in different regions, not only in Brest Oblast, but all over the country every year. It was hard for us to decide when exactly to hold Vytoki. We wanted the event not to dissolve into a multitude of other events, but to remain the only one of the kind. This was one of the reasons why we decided on one major festival this year,” Viktor Lukashenko said.
“This is a family festival. There were some shortcomings, which we have discussed and corrected. For example, this year the prizes will be more interesting. They have been divided into three: gold, silver and bronze. It will be a tough competition for them,” the head of the NOC of Belarus added.
