International Bard Song Day
December 22 · Level 4 · #1551 of 2238
This day is devoted to the author's song: a guitar, a living voice and poems sung by the people who wrote them. It brings together fans of a genre that grew out of the Soviet bard movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
How it is celebrated: people organise concerts, living-room gigs and open stages where anyone can perform an original song. Fans also sing around campfires, and many share recordings online.
The Grushin Festival, the best-known gathering of bard song, was first held in 1968 near Kuybyshev. It is named after Valery Grushin, who died in 1967 while saving drowning children.