The 'Chervona Kalyna' festival was held at one of the educational colonies in the Lviv region

This year's 'Chervona Kalyna' festival was dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the birth of Anton Semyonovych Makarenko, who is considered a prominent educator of our time whose ideas and thoughts are still being implemented today. The inmates meticulously prepared their concert performances in advance. The jury evaluated their performances and artistic works on a ten-point scale, and all those present offered repeated and warm applause.
The festival was opened by the head of the institution, Yuriy Yuriyovych Kapustenskyi. Following the performance of the national anthem, he, along with colony inmates Ostap Senchyna and Ivan Shtefanov, accepted the relay baton from a delegation from Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia region), led by the department head Olena Shcherbak. The clergy, Mykola Petrushchak and Yaroslav Fabirovskyi, blessed the participants of the event. Colony inmates Denys Husiv and Vasyl Danylko laid flowers at the Memorial Sign to Bolshevik Terror to the sounds of the spiritual anthem 'Great and Only God'.

The welcoming procedure for the festival proved interesting. Touching speeches were delivered by a responsible officer of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences, Volodymyr Trokhymchuk; First Deputy Head of the Regional Administration of the State Department, Roman Drach; Head of the Regional Administration Department, Lyuba Vayda; Deputy Head of the District Council, Mykhailo Pavliuchyk; Professor of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Vadym Naumov; Head of the city organisation 'Batkivshchyna', Lyubov Andriyishyn and her fellow party member, city council deputy Volodymyr Murayko; Cossack General-Aide of the Lviv region, Mykhailo Stetsiv; lecturer at the 'Lviv Polytechnic' University, Lesya Bik; Head of the District Administration Supervisory Commission, Halyna Kukhar; as well as responsible officers of the District Administration Volodymyr Sanytskyi (Mostyska) and Vasyl Stets (Turka). In every speech, there were wishes for the amateur performers to demonstrate their artistic skills to the best of their ability, but more importantly, to return to their homes, to deeply analyse their actions and follow a righteous path in life, to gain desired professions, to start families, and, as they say, to turn their faces toward the national culture and history of our state, and to live in harmony with the law rather than breaking it.

During the festival, competitions for theatrical sketches took place, including 'How the Sultan approached Makarenko for advice', 'Oh, Friend', and 'Vas-Vas'. Poetry was recited with great intonation by Serhiy Churkin ('To Makarenko'), Ostap Senchyna ('August, Sambir...'), and Andriy Pushynskyi ('What for!').

In the song competition, Mykola Virvan ('The Sky is Weeping') and Oleksandr Osikov ('Father and Mother') received high marks. A group of inmates performed 'Hey, Makarenko's Men'. In the costume competition, Andriy Maksym ('Sultan'), Yuriy Okulov ('Friend'), and Tymur Yabluchanskyi ('Makarenko') were unmatched.

Works of applied art, including embroidery and wood carving, were also exhibited; they were best executed by Valeriy Gross, Oleksiy Lamakin, Mykhailo Rodnyi, Kostyantyn Didusenko, and Stepan Popivchak.

A dance competition was held for the first time. The young men performed 'Breakdance', the 'Hopak', and a 'Cossack' dance.

The script and the programme were prepared by young teachers from secondary school No. 11, Nadiya Pysko-Hudziy and Ihor Veselovskyi, while the musical accompaniment was provided by the orchestra under the direction of the colony club manager, Heorhiy Panchuk.

The colony's amateur performers not only delighted those present with their skills but also listened to performances by city singers Mariya Khomyn-Momorska and Ihor Teplyi, as well as the well-known Lviv performer Ostap. He, incidentally, headed the jury for the concert and art event.

And one more pleasant mission took place during the festival programme. Twelve convicts received parole for their impeccable adherence to regime requirements and the fulfilment of educational tasks. Without a doubt, they felt the happiest among all the institution's inmates at that moment.