With love for the small homeland, delicious and creative. How the first day of "Vytoka" went in Postavy 

Topic news For many, the Vytoki festival has become a symbol of the beginning of summer. This traditional sports and cultural festival brings together young people and families, offering a variety of activities for all ages: from a sports and historical quest and a musical production called Modny Vadevil to the Olympic quest that is so popular with children. This year, the festival is hosted by Postavy, and BELTA correspondents joined the events of the first day to capture the cheerful, sporty and friendly atmosphere of the festival.

The first day of the festival began with a visit to the Postavy Dairy Plant by the youth of Postavy region and journalists. As the festival co-organizer, DIRECTOR of BelBrandAudit LLC Valentina Dynich noted, such a project is necessary for Vytoka as a career guidance line. The director of the plant Georgy Kosten showed the guests all the stages of cheese production, told about the history of the plant and shared plans. "Currently, as part of the state program "One region - one project", the installation of equipment for the production of cottage cheese is underway. A MILK bottling line has already been installed, which is planned to be installed during the fourth quarter and put into operation. In addition, we did not sit idly by in previous years: to expand production, we modernized the boiler house, increasing its capacity by one and a half times. At present, the reconstruction of the first stage of the treatment facilities has been completed. We have increased the capacity of the treatment facilities by more than two and a half times and continue modernization. it is also planned to purchase a line for cutting cheese into slices and packaging. In the future, we intend to expand the production of cheeses, increasing both the range and production capacity," he said.
Most of the products of the Postavy Dairy Plant are exported . "Last year, exports amounted to more than $40 million. Also yesterday, within the framework of the Belagro exhibition, an agreement was reached on the delivery of a batch of cheeses to Uzbekistan . We had worked with these partners before, but, unfortunately, this work died down for two years. Yesterday, within the framework of the exhibition, a new agreement was reached," the director added.
Over its 85-year history, the plant has experienced a lot: it worked during the war years, was transferred to another enterprise for some time and was devastated. But today its products are familiar to many - butter ,sour cream with various fat content, milk , kefir , ryazhenka, baked milk and cheeses . The dairy plant has created decent working conditions and wages, provided various support measures in the housing issue and many other initiatives.

Postavy Dairy Plant became a platform for a seminar - round table "Belarus - a brand of the young". Here, young people discussed the importance of staying in their native regions, shared ideas for improving existing conditions and learned about the opportunities that have already been created for them. In addition, young people took part in a creative master class, where they learned to express emotions through text, inspired by what they saw.

The day continued with an artistic interactive from the ArtChaos gallery. Together with the artists, the young guests of the festival decorated the new skate-roller park. As last year, "postsilki" (bedspreads that were woven in Belarusian villages in the late 19th - 20th centuries) were used to decorate the park. However, this year, Belarusian words associated with success and victories were woven into the patterns. "We organically incorporated them into the pattern to combine art and sports," said the author of the concept, Belarusian artist Sergei Ashukha.
Unfortunately, the rain did not allow the paint to dry, but the gallery representatives found a way out. "Of course, it's a shame about the work, because we tried to apply the pattern, we wanted the children to have fun. But we are not despairing. This stage turned out to be more like a master class for us. The children understood how to work with a brush, how the paint lays down. And we will leave the materials with them, because we want the children to finish this project themselves," said the director of the gallery, Liliya Lukashenko.

A little resident of Postavy, Alisa Yurkova, said that she came to the master class with friends. They were looking forward to the festival's arrival in their city, and even a warning about rain could not stop them. "It's cool that you can put your hand to something that will decorate the city. I have a scooter and roller skates, so I will come here to ride and happily remember how I decorated the site myself," the girl shared.
Angelina Portunova studies at an art school, and in the master class she saw an opportunity to try herself in a new business. "It was a lot of fun, and I only had positive emotions," Angelina noted.

The day continued with a presentation of the "Hedgehog with Sensem" project. Guests of the sports and cultural festival "Vytoki" were presented with local cuisine, emphasizing their originality and special presentation. The presentation was held by the national club of national cuisine, games and rituals "Tradition" of the Center for Culture and Folk Art of the Postavy District.
The director of the center, Ksenia Gresko, said that they focused on potato dishes, because it is not for nothing that it is called the second bread in our country.All the dishes presented are included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Belarus.

For example, in the Postavy district, even ordinary draniki are prepared in a special way - with cottage cheese. The director explained that it has not been officially established why ancestors prepared draniki this way, but there are assumptions: "Every Belarusian had his own farm. And, of course, there was always a cow-breadwinner in the house. There were a lot of dairy products, and so the samecottage cheese and began to add.

And in Postavy they also prepare unusual dumplings - with "souls". "Initially, dumplings were different, they were made from FLOUR. Then, whenpotatoes began to play a serious role among Belarusians, they began to make dumplings from potatoes. At first they were made without filling - just balls of grated potatoes. Over time, they began to add "soul". Initially, it was a memorial dish, it was prepared for the "complaining table". But over time, it became less festive, although still not so easy to prepare. That's probably why when family or friends gather on Sunday, they decorate our table," said Ksenia Gresko. The filling in the dumplings can be completely different, but in Postavy, minced MEAT and lard with dill are traditionally used.

There are many other treats among the dishes: brushwood, birch kvass, bread jelly and many others. "Such dishes are still cooked in our families," the director of the center emphasized.
"Vytoki" in Postavy is just gaining momentum. The first day of the festival ended with an evening open-air screening of the film "World Champion". And tomorrow, new events await guests: a sports and historical quest will be held, a modern skate-roller park with a workout area will open, the opening of the festival and the musical performance "Modny vadevil" will take place. And on Saturday, the Olympic quest, long loved by all the little participants, will take place, in which they will have a chance to win a smart watch, Bluetooth music speaker or power bank. BELTA. 
Photo by Denis Kostyuchenko