The Ukrainian folk festival “Spring Necklace” is being held for already the third time in the Cherkaska hromada of the Donetsk Oblast. The Cherkaska AH was the first settlement hromada to believe in reforms and amalgamate in 2015. Since then, the hromada has gradually moved forward in all directions.

Here, Ukrainian traditions, customs and folk songs are honoured, and for this reason a great folk festival takes place in the open air museum of folk architecture, life and children's creativity in the village of Prelesne of the Cherkaska AH.

This year, the festival gathered around 200 amateurs of cultural institutions of the Cherkaska AH, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk cities, and the Sloviansk Rayon, says Olena Fesak, representative of the Culture and Tourism Department of the Cherkasy Village Council.

The importance of such holidays for creation of a common identity within the hromada and positioning among other territories is constantly mentioned during the events held in the Donetsk Local Government Development Centre, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

“Amalgamated hromadas, that appear due to decentralisation and within the formation of a new basic local self-government level, were sometimes not united by the common life before. Formation of a new identity is important for such hromadas,” commented Maksym Tkach, decentralisation adviser of the Donetsk LGDC. “This is especially true for rural and settlement areas that used to have no common traditions and holidays."

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