Bering Strait Festival Scheduled for 4–11 August in Chukotka

The Bering Strait Festival is slated to take place in Chukotka on 4–11 August. The festival programme will consist of business sessions, sporting competitions, and study tours for journalists and tourism industry professionals. The event is being held as part of the plan for Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021–2023. Chairmanship events are being organized by the Roscongress Foundation.

The Festival business programme, the Arctic Traveller’s Forum, will include nine sessions and discussions dedicated to tourism industry development of the Arctic. The event will bring together 150 tourism experts and specialists to discuss co-operation among regions, urban beautification, transport accessibility, and the involvement of locals in tourism. Bering Strait Festival business programme participants will also be treated to a special promising tourist product test drive with a cruise to Kresta Bay to explore the village of Egvekinot and the Master of the Earth ethnographic park. 

The festival programme also includes the Beringia Games, a gathering of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic for a cultural forum and sporting competition. 45 individuals will be competing, with representatives of 8 Russian Arctic regions to be joined by guests from abroad. The Beringia Games will include such folk sports as the one foot high kick and the sledge jump among others.

The 2023 Beringia Regatta will be taking place during the festival. More than 100 individuals are expected to take part in team races on leather kayaks, which served as the primary mode of transport for the indigenous peoples of the Bering Strait area for centuries. Men’s and women’s team competitions will be joined by individual races.

The event will likewise include a press tour focused on Chukotka’s Providensky District. Participants will learn more about what makes the territory an attractive location: Whale Alley, Sinyavinsky Strait, and special routes from Beringia National Park. Festival organizers have also planned a special tour to introduce tourism industry professionals to the area with the goal of directly acquainting operators and agents involved in promoting extreme and expedition tourism with what the region and its tour operators have to offer.

The Bering Strait Festival’s main events will be held in the city of Anadyr and the village of Lorino and are being organized by the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic and the Government of Chukotka Autonomous Area.