Representatives of the Land Management Faculty Student Council Successfully Performed at the Gala Concert of the Anniversary XX Cultural and Creative Festival "League of Friendship"

The final stage of the anniversary cultural and creative festival "League of Friendship" has concluded. The main goal of the festival is to introduce school students and college students to the culture and traditions of countries from around the world.

Participation in this festival has become a tradition for the Land Management Faculty Student Council. For the third year in a row, the "Zemkast" team has participated in "League of Friendship", but this year, another team from the faculty council, "AviaZemSales," also performed.

The festival included four stages: the draw, national cuisine, the grand challenge, and the gala concert. At the draw, participants could test their knowledge of the traditions of other countries and peoples in a themed quiz. Then based on the results of the quiz the actual draw took place, where participants found out which country they would represent. The "Zemkast" team got Uzbekistan, and "AviaZemSales" got Turkey.

The next stage of the festival was the national cuisine, for which participants had to present the traditional cuisine of their assigned country. Namely, to prepare mini-sets of four dishes: two appetizers, a main course, a dessert, and a beverage for three expert judges, and talk about the cooking method, features, and interesting facts about the prepared dishes. This stage took place at the "Mega" shopping mall. All teams prepared vibrant tables with delicious food, and after the tasting, the jury members were certainly not hungry. The "Zemkast" team prepared traditional Uzbek plov, homemade samsa, sweet baklava, as well as the "Navruz" salad, named after the Uzbek holiday of the same name. As their beverage they served "Shurchay" – tea with milk and salt. The "AviaZemSales" team prepared dishes such as "Tavuk Gyuvech" – a chicken and potato stew, "Salatas" – an eggplant salad, "Pide" – a Turkish analog of pizza, and for dessert, they presented baklava, with coffee as their beverage.

The stage following the national cuisine was the "Grand Challenge." The culture of peoples and countries is not only about delicious, unusual food and beautiful dresses but also about sports culture. This is exactly what the festival participants had to demonstrate at this stage. Each team one-by-one went through a sports obstacle course, showing their strength and agility.

The final stage of the festival was the gala concert, where participants were able to present the brightest traditions of their country. Showing all their creativity and inventiveness, the participants prepared performances combining sketches and dances. The key characteristics of a good gala concert are charismatic and interesting hosts, unexpected segues, captivating performances. And this time, the stage had it all and even more – horses, tea parties, magic, cooking, and travels. Of course, the teams from the Land Management Faculty Student Council did not stand aside; the participants prepared interesting plots, amazing dances, and beautiful costumes. After the gala concert, the jury summarized the results, and announced the winners of each stage and the top three winners of the entire "League of Friendship" cultural and creative festival.

All festival participants received commemorative prizes and letters of appreciation. Next year, the Land Management Faculty Student Council teams will once again compete for the title of League of Friendship winners!

Galina Yurchuk, 

Yuliya Kudryavtseva