On July 12, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The "Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk" festival is once again opening its doors to friends and bringing the joy of meeting art. The grand opening of the XXI International Festival of Arts will take place today on the stage of the Summer Amphitheatre, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. During the ceremony, the Union State Prize in Literature and Art for 2011-2012 will be awarded. The laureates are People's Artist of Belarus Georgy Poplavsky and Russian poet Gleb Gorbovsky. People's Artist of Russia Lev Leshchenko will be presented with the award "Through Art – to Peace and Mutual Understanding," and a star bearing his name will appear on the Alley of Stars near the Summer Amphitheatre. The opening concert is distinguished by its stellar and international lineup of participants: Lev Leshchenko, Irina Allegrova, Valeria, the Igor Moiseyev State Academic Folk Dance Ensemble, Gunesh, Alyona Lanskaya, the "Syabry" ensemble, the Belarusian State Ensemble "Pesniary," VIA "Verasy," the State Dance Ensemble of the Republic of Belarus, Chris Norman, Samantha Fox, the band "The Cavern Beatles," Alessandro Safina, and Andrey Danilko's Theatre. Among the artists are winners and prize-winners of the Eurovision Song Contest: Loreen, the "Buranovskiye Babushki," Alexander Rybak, as well as winners of the International Children's Music Competitions "Vitebsk 2003-2012." Despite the fact that the current festival is not an anniversary one, it is in no way inferior to an anniversary festival in terms of scale, the high level of ensembles and performers, and the number of concerts. The state flags of 28 countries: Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Great Britain, Georgia, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Finland, Croatia, Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia, whose representatives have come to the current festival, are flying in the bowl of the Summer Amphitheatre concert complex. More than 75 events will be held on 11 festival venues. The festival's concert programmes also feature the names of Leonid Serebrennikov, Boris Moiseev, the National Concert Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus under the direction of Mikhail Finberg, Sergey Penkin, Nadezhda Babkina and the "Russkaya Pesnya" ensemble, Vladimir Vinokur, Alexander Tikhanovich and Yadviga Poplavskaya, Eduard Hank, Inna Afanasieva, Irina Dorofeeva.