On the 13th of August the hospitable land of the native city of Dimash Qudaibergen welcomed the participants and guests of the V Open Children’s Vocal Festival-Competition Baqytty Bala-2023.

The traditional evening of introductions took place in the Green Land recreation area. The finalists from Kazakhstan, Russia, Estonia, Spain and the Republic of Mauritius, ready to compete for the Grand Prix of the competition, got acquainted with each other, shared interesting stories about themselves and their countries.

The participants, who came from abroad, were very interested in the peculiarities of Kazakh culture. Each guest said a few phrases of greeting in Kazakh, which the participants from Kazakhstan themselves helped them to learn. For example, it was very touching to hear “Rakhmet for the meeting” in Kazakh from a resident of the distant republic of Mauritius,” Evangelika Batarshina thanked the organisers.

Participants shared how they learnt about the competition. Lucia Casani from Spain, Valencia, simply read in social networks, but believes that this is the best contest and a great experience for her.

Anastasia Kalyuzhnaya from Russia, Krasnodar said that she is a fan of Dimash, considers him a special singer, recalled how excited she was about the concert in Krasnodar and emphasised that she was very happy to be part of such an interesting contest as “Baqytty Bala”.

The draw of the competition programme was fun – the participants “drew” the lucky numbers by a kind of ping-pong, hitting a balloon into the cups with the numbers. The honour of performing first went to Amantai Aiganym from Astana.

The atmosphere of the evening and the upcoming joyful excitement of the beginning of the competition was beautifully expressed by Dana Baskenova, a contestant from Petropavlovsk, who said: “Don’t give up your dream”. Let’s wish the contestants good luck and let their dreams come true!