Every summer for twenty years, La Rosière in Savoie has welcomed Russian and Ukrainian artists as part of the Vent d’Est festival, which highlights Slavic culture. A festival today suspended to the situation in Ukraine. The Franco-Russian couple who organize it still want to believe in its holding next August.
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It is a highlight of the summer season in the Savoyard resort. For 20 years, Russian and Ukrainian musicians, dancers and artists have gathered there to celebrate Slavic culture. An appointment today compromised by the Russian invasion in Ukraine. At the head of the Vent d’Est festival, Elena Molin, born in Russia and whose parents and family live in eastern Ukraine, is obviously very worried about the situation there.
“In a word, I’m distraught. It’s a lot of stress. The discrepancy between the situation we’re experiencing here and what they’re experiencing there is so huge that it’s hard to realize”
Elena MolinDirector of the Vent d’Est festival
Same concern for Jean, her husband, who co-organizes the festival, and their three children. All follow minute by minute the events on the spot and constantly take news of the family. Despite the war, Jean Molin wants to continue to share his love of Slavic culture: “Every year, we try to produce folk dance, because it’s colorful, it’s authentic. Even if sometimes they are amateurs, they are amateurs who work like professionals“.
Elena also wants to maintain the 2022 edition of Vent d’Est. But she also has a lot of questions. Especially with regard to the cohabitation between the Ukrainian and Russian artists invited this summer. “I feel quite divided… Do we invite them? What atmosphere will it give between them? How will the Russians be perceived in resort by the French?“, she says. The festival is scheduled for August 8-13, 2022.