On the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, the ethnosport festival "Yugorskie Oblasa" opened in Shapsha. This year the event is taking place in a new format — in addition to sports competitions in oblasa rowing for Ugra residents, guests of the district, there will be a large-scale two-day holiday, which will allow residents of Ugra to engage in the world of culture of the indigenous peoples of the North, cinematography, get to know the prospects for the development of the Arctic, of which several districts of Ugra are part.

Within the framework of the festival, international competitions for the Cup of the Governor of Ugra in rowing on oblasa, the XV General Assembly of the Northern Forum, the festival of the Russian Movement of children and youth "Movement of the first", film screenings of the Academy "Spirit of Fire" are held.

"This is a special event for our region. Competitions for the Governor's Cup in rowing on oblas have been held in Ugra since 2011. They are attended by indigenous peoples of Ugra, other regions of Russia, guests from Hungary, Serbia, Zambia, Finland, New Zealand. This year, the races became part of a large ethnic festival. This is a natural, important process of strengthening traditions, a kind of bridge from the past to the future,"  the head of the region Natalia Komarova said, welcoming the participants of the ethnofestival.

During the international sportive competitions, mass starts, relay races, single races, single standing races, races of "Three" and "Two" crews, as well as national wrestling competitions are held.

More than 200 athletes aged 12 to 56 years and older from the municipalities of Ugra are competing for the title of the best, as well as athletes from Kenya and Zambia,  India, Turkey, Iran, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Turkey, China.

"Ugra is the homeland, the seat of power of Khanty, Mansi, Nenets. Water plays one of the key roles in the worldview of our peoples and their culture. So, in the myths of the Mansi peoples, it is noted that water is paramount, it is the basis of life. The indigenous peoples of the North believe that the ceremony of worshiping the water spirit Vit-Khon will help the participants of the races, will charge the guests of the festival with the energy of creation. I wish each of you good health, kindness, a warm hearth in the house," Natalia Komarova said.

According to the Executive Director of the secretariat of the international organization of Northern regions "Northern Forum" Vladimir Vasiliev, the organization headed by him pays great attention to supporting the traditions and culture of indigenous peoples.

"We are observers of the Arctic Council and work very closely with organizations of indigenous peoples throughout the Arctic. It is very nice to see how languages, culture and traditions are preserved here in Ugra. We have a lot to learn from each other," Vladimir Vasiliev said.

A special prize of the international organization of the northern regions "Northern Forum" for preserving the traditions and heritage of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic and the North was awarded to the chairman of the Nizhnevartovsk district branch of the public organization of the Autonomous Okrug, an honorary citizen of Ugra, president of the district center for rowing on Oblasa and hunting biathlon, the ideological inspirer of the competitions for the Cup of the Governor of Ugra in rowing on Oblasa Anatoliy Kaurtaev.

"Now many international organizations are trying to abolish Russia, and our organization, the Federation of Ancestral Amusements and Ethnosport, is trying to break the artificially created blockade. I am grateful to the foreign athletes who responded to the offer and became participants of the festival. The organization I lead has become an accredited partner of UNESCO. This imposes special obligations on cooperation with Ugra, which has made a decisive contribution to the formation of world ethnosport. Today's event is a celebration of the whole people," Alexey Kylasov, a Russian cultural anthropologist, author of the theory of ethnosport, member of the Board of the Federation of Ancestral Amusements and Ethnosport of Russia, said.

The guest of the festival was also the Governor of the Tomsk region Vladimir Mazur, who arrived in Ugra on a working visit.

"This is my first time at such a festival, which embodies all the values, first of all the culture that underlies our country. President Vladimir Putin says that it is possible to kill a person, make him lose faith in his culture, but it is impossible to cancel the culture of the whole country. I am sure that next year there will be a team from the Tomsk region," Vladimir Mazur said.

During the first competitive day of the Ugra Governor's Cup in rowing, the best athletes in the individual competition in all age groups were determined. The winners received awards from the hands of the head of the region Natalia Komarova and a member of the Board of the Federation of Native Amusements and Ethnosport of Russia Alexey Kylasov.

Rich cultural program has been prepared for guests and participants within the framework of the Ugra Oblasa festival. Guests of the festival can enjoy performances by national creative teams, see the best exhibitions, one of which will be "Meet the Ob Ugrians", where games, puzzles and master classes on traditional crafts will be held.

You can get to know the culture of the Khanty and Mansi peoples better by taking part in master classes on sled jumping, throwing tynzyan on chorei and tug-of-war. There are master classes on making national toys, painting with oil, painting shoppers and creating panels. You can send postcards to your family and friends in any part of the country in the style of oil spills generated by a neural network.

In the tent of the regional branch of the All-Russian movement of children and youth "Movement of the First", a series of master classes is being held, where you can create an akan doll with your own hands, weave a bead ornament, create a clay amulet. Also, participants will have master classes on the preparation of northern drinks, on photographing with a phone and burning on wood, drawing on canvas. In addition to activities in the tent, participants will enjoy family sport fishing, outdoor games for children and kite flying.

Also, guests of the festival can ride horses from the Mustang equestrian sports school, learn how to make mosaics, woven charms, paint pendants, and then take pictures in the Oblasa photo zone.

The Academy "Spirit of Fire" organizes a film screening of films during the ethnofestival — a pre-premiere screening of "Ugra Novellas" and a demonstration of documentaries made by the Association of Polar Explorers in Russia with the support of the government of Ugra.

The organizers of the event are the government of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, the Department of Physical Culture and Sports of Ugra, the administration of the Khanty-Mansiysk district and the autonomous institution "Ugramegasport".