A festival of wedding ceremonies, intended to preserve special rituals of the Volyn provinces for the descendants, was held in the Holobska AH, as informs the Volyn Local Government Development Centre, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme and MinRegion.

Representatives of 12 amalgamated hromadas of the Volyn Oblast gathered to celebrate the traditional Volyn wedding with brides and grooms, matchmakers and young married women on a scene set up at a local stadium in the village of Holoby, the Kovel Rayon.

Such a festival has become part of the strategy implementation of the Holobska AH, one of the components of which is the development of tourism and human potential.

The entrance to the stadium was turned into a real wedding gates – it was framed by a branch of a green birch and flowers. At the entrance the bouquets of greenery were clung to the guests’ clothes, and troyisti muzyky (ed. literally 'three musicians' that typically make up the ensemble) played the stirring songs.

Oleksandr Savchenko, head of the Volyn Oblast State Administration, who also visited the Ukrainian traditional fest, said that the wedding is a “peculiar folk coding of the future family”.

In his speech the Volyn governor also touched upon the issues of decentralisation: “If people believe in themselves, and not expect that everything will be given by the state, they can achieve success – they have learned to do this themselves and teach the guests.”

The festival lasted until the evening: the guests of the festival were able to buy Ukrainian folk souvenirs at the fair, take pictures in the photo zone and participate in the traditional wedding amusements.