LONDON GREETS THE “HEARTY” FESTIVAL

Heart 2 Heart International Charitable Festival will show its revised cultural programme in London on July 3-8, 2018.

This is not our first visit to the capital of Great Britain. The Festival, organised by St Elisabeth Convent (Minsk, Belarus), took place in London and Dublin in the spring of 2017 for the first time.

This year, there will be two festival locations in London: the Representative Office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Great Britain on July 3-6, and St Sava Serbian Orthodox Church on July 4-8.

The programme will be rich in diverse events, such as workshop sessions on icon painting, ancient mosaic, and folk crafts, photo exhibitions, and drama shows.

Each person will find something interesting to do. Art lovers will enjoy the sale of products made in the workshops of St Elisabeth Convent. Our icons are painted with tempera paints according to ancient Byzantine traditions and canons, as well as using the unique method of painting with powdered semiprecious gemstones. Those who wish to learn more about the ancient arts will be able to try their hand as artists, too: there will be several workshop sessions on icon painting during the Festival.

The organisers have prepared new workshop sessions on ancient mosaic. Professional mosaic artists from St Elisabeth Convent (Minsk) will share the secrets of the artisans of old times. The artists who work in our Mosaic Workshop have decorated churches in Belarus, Russia, Greece, and other countries. The participants of the workshop session will learn the technique of smalt mosaic assembly on a flat surface and find out how a church mosaic is made, from the preliminary draft to final assembly in church. Their efforts will be crowned with a mosaic panel made with their own hands.

Traditional Belarusian folk crafts never fail to cause a genuine interest of the visitors. This time, the guests will have the chance to come to workshop sessions on painting wooden gifts, straw-plaiting, making Belarusian dolls, and weaving traditional Belarusian belts.

Hearty Evenings are a new format of Festival events. The visitors will be immersed into the atmosphere of everyday life in Belarus in the past and watch funny performances and sketches. Most importantly, they will be able to have informal conversations with the Festival team.

There will also be an exciting children's programme. Children are always fond of watching the characters of Batleika Puppet Theatre. The audience of this puppet show will see how the good fights the evil, with the narrative leading up to a culmination, and finally, a happy end. Batleika Puppet Theatre was warmly welcomed in Dublin, Berlin, Belgrade, and London last year.

This year, our Heart 2 Heart Festival invites you to visit our premiere show in London: a one-actor music performance The Little Prince based on the eponymous fairy tale by Antoine de saint-Exupery.

Spectators in Minsk (Belarus) have named this festival as one of the best drama performances suitable for families with children. The crew has managed to create a moving story of friendship, love, responsibility, and separation.

The show engulfs the audience with the atmosphere of the literary work. The spectators are involved in the show from the first moments: paper planes are flying around, and adults are invited to draw on stage. This show brings you back into your childhood.

Alexander Zhdanovich, who is an actor of the Maxim Gorky National Academic Drama Theatre, plays the main and the only part in this performance.  He has spent several years working with children who stay in the boarding home for children with special needs. He adapts well-known fairy tales and puts them in Christian context, and then stages these fairy tales with the children.

There will be two such shows in London: in the Representative Office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Great Britain on July 6 at 6 PM, and in St Sava Serbian Orthodox Church on July 8 at 12.30 PM.

 “There are dozens of colourful and exciting events going on in London every day. What can we add to this mix? We would like to make a feast for the people and to show the beauty of living with God to them. Our contribution is in our hearts and our eyes. If people can see the light, goodness, and warmth emanating through them, our mission will be accomplished,” Nickolai Storozhenko, one of the organisers of Heart 2 Heart Festival, says.

We would like to point out that Heart 2 Heart Festival helps to raise funds for charitable projects of St Elisabeth Convent in Minsk. The first Heart 2 Heart Festival was held in 2015. More than 10,000 people have visited our Festival events in various European cities.

You will learn about the life of the Convent and the social ministry of the Sisterhood in honour of St Elisabeth. The sisters help children with special needs, provide rehabilitation for those willing to get rid of drug and alcohol addictions, and offer visiting nurse services.

Entry to all festival events is free, except workshop sessions. A sale of products made in the workshops of St Elisabeth Convent will be open daily during the Festival. You will get the chance to purchase ceramic items, mosaics, icons, souvenirs, herbal products, teas and balms, church supplies, stained glass products, clothes made of natural fabrics, and a lot more. Anything you buy will be a contribution to the cause of the social ministry and development of the Convent.

We are looking forward to meeting you during the “hearty” evenings in London:

●        July 3: Sacred Heart Catholic Church (Edge Hill, London SW19 4LU)

●        July 3-6: Rossotrudnichestvo Office (37 Kensington High St, Kensington, London W8 5ED)

●        July 7-8: St Anselm Catholic Church (89 West Hill, Dartford DA1 2HJ)

●        July 4-8: St Sava Serbian Orthodox Church (89-91 Lancaster Rd, London W11 1QQ)!

Learn more: https://heart-2-heart.news/

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