From August 19 to 23 the 11th Aksenov-fest to be held in Kazan

The literary and music festival will open on the eve of the birth of Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov. On August 20 he would be 85 years old.

"Aksenov without quotations" is the motto of the current festival.

At  the 11th Aksenov-fest there will be no direct quotations  by  the famous writer. Friends and colleagues of the writer - musicians, directors, artists will hold evenings and meetings, where they  share their creative plans and their own views on the artistic heritage of Aksenov.

Among the guests of the festival, poets and writers Alexandr Kabakov, Yevgeny Popov, Alexander Pereverzin, Shamil Idiatullin, Vladislav Otroshenko, editor-in-chief of the October magazine Irina Barmetova, academicians of the Russian Academy of Arts Natella Toidze and Boris Messerer, as well as Russian film director Vadim Abdrashitov and documentary film director Yevgeny Tsymbal.

This year, for the first time Aksenov-fest will receive guests from China and Sweden. Liu Wenfei,  president of the Chinese Association for the Study of Russian Literature will talk about the influence of Aksenov's work on contemporary Chinese literature, and the famous musician and composer from Sweden Elias Fingersh, called by the critics "Golden Trombone of Europe ", will give a big solo concert at the monument to Fyodor Shalyapin on Bauman Street. Here, under the evening sky of Kazan, Fingersh and Liu Wenfei will present a bold improvisation that connects the melody of the Chinese poetic line and jazz. The audience will hear Pushkin's poems in Chinese, Tatar and Hebrew.

The premiere of the festival will be  presentation of the book of Bella Akhmadulina’s husband, artist and sculptor Boris Messerer - to the 80th anniversary of the poet. This book is called the encyclopedia of the life of the generation of the sixties.

In the program of the festival more than 30 creative meetings and film screenings. The events will be held at the Vasily Aksenov House Museum, Mir cinema, Shaliapin Palace Hotel, the Konstantin Vasilyev Gallery, the Central City Library on Vishnevsky Street, Aksenov Garden, the Writers' Union of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Galiaskar Theater Kamala and the Chamber Theater "Sdvig".

Entrance to all events is free of charge. However, the number of seats is limited. In this regard, the Culture Department of the Executive Committee of Kazan city asks all those who wish to register in advance. You can get a free ticket for all festival events in the Central City Library on Vishnevsky Street. Telephone for inquiries 236-42-93.

As part of the festival in Kazan, a large-scale event of the Privolzhsky Federal District starts - the Literary Meeting "Russia - the plural number." This socially significant project is held with the grant support of the President of the Russian Federation.

The Literary Assembly is called upon to strengthen ties between regions and unite writers, literary critics, theater and cinema figures, culturologists, journalists, publishers from Moscow, Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny and Sviyazhsk. The organizers of the forum are  literary and art magazine "October" and the Union of Writers of Moscow. The main events of the Literary Assembly will be held in the conference hall of  "Shaliapin Palace Hotel".

The grand opening of Aksenov-fest this year for the first time will take place at the Tatar State Academic Theater after  Galiaskar Kamal on August 21. On the stage of the theater, the ceremony of awarding the Star Ticket 2017 prize will also take place on this day. Two winners of this year will be announced in the directions "literature" and "music". The nomination "music" is presented this year for the first time, in honor of the writer's anniversary.

The culmination of the festival's program will be the opening of the art object "To Read in the Garden" at Aksenov Square on August 22.

On the same day, a literary and musical concert will take place in the park with the participation of jazz collectives of the city, and in the Mir movie theater there will be open screenings of documentary films "Zoshchenko and Olesha", "The Enigma of Chekhov" and the feature film "The Time of the Dancer", creative meetings with the directors Vadim Abdrashitov and Yevgeniy Tsymbal, as well as the Round Table at the Union of Writers of the Republic of Tatarstan, devoted to the ecology of language.

With the program of the festival you can see the link: http://old.kzn.ru/upload/documents/39517.pdf