Children’s recreation camp Lukomorye is located on the western border of village Savateevka of Angarsk district of the Irkutsk region, 25 km from the city of Angarsk.

Here from 19th to 29th of May 2011 in the territory of the Children’s recreation camp “Sayany” was held the first festival of wooden sculpture Lukomorye 2011 dedicated to the 60th anniversary of Angarsk.

The theme of the festival “Lukomorye — 2011” was “the Heroes of Russian fairy tales”.

Ivan Ivanovich Butenko, the ideological inspirer and the chairman of the festival organizing committee, expressed the main idea of the festival in his interview:

“The idea was born long ago in the student construction team when we were building children’s playgrounds.

The essence of the festival: we really want heroes of our children will be our Russian fairy-tale characters not the pokemons. Therefore— “Lukomorye” by Pushkin.

Originally the festival was conceived as an international one, teams from Mongolia and Kazakhstan were invited, but they could not come. (Note that the festival has really become international since 2013).

Today is the second day of the festival.   The sculptors are very talented. I hope they will give their sculptures the warmth of their hands. This year most sculptures are static, but next year we will make them dynamic.

The material is pine; it is used for the first time. Oak is used in Ryazan; linden is used in other regions. And our Angarsk pine is a ship timber. It is smooth and it has less resin, its logs have large diameter. The participants were delighted when they saw the pine logs.”

The organizers of the festival Lukomorie-2011 were the children’s recreation camp “Sayan” and Consulting center “Business Concept Holding” with the support of administration of Angarsk municipality and the Ministry of Culture and archives of the Irkutsk region.

The festival immediately became a cultural “bomb” – absolutely peaceful. The presentability of the first festival was incredible: more than half of the participants of «Lukomorye 2011» were great Russian masters of carving and the winners of various sculpture competitions.

Among them were such famous carvers as a bronze medalist of the world championship ice sculpture “ICE Alaska 2011” Ivan Zuev, Russian champion of ice sculpture Sergey Zinner, multiple winners of Russian and international wood and stone carving festivals Ivan Loktyuhin and Vadim Polin, Vladimir Anoufriev, Minibulat Abdrahimov Alexander Shestakov, Vladimir Almanov, Dmitry Kizimov, Alexander Parfenov, Maxim Krasulin, Natalia Beloborodova and other talented masters.

Participants of the festival were 13 teams which performed in “team classification” and “one by one”.

Sponsors and supporters of the festival:

• CJSC “Savateevskoe” (providing materials for sculptures),
• IC “Oranta Insurance”(providing accident and tick bite insurance),
• The distributor of STIHL Company in the city of Irkutsk (providing chainsaws),
• “VostSibStroy” (providing financial support).
• The Festival Lukomorye was held at the high level – everything was provided: for weather protection – tents and lanterns; for tick protection – treatment of the territory and insurance; strict confidence during the assessment of work, sculptures were exhibited at numbers without specifying the names of the participants.

The Festival Lukomorye was not deprived of commercial attractiveness for participants: prize fund of 150 thousand rubles and grants for 10 days of work.

The festival Lukomorye became an incredible and expressive source of positive energy and it united hundreds of people for whom work, beauty, inspiration and love for their country and its great history remain fundamental principles of life, the spiritual foundation of our existence.

The place of holding the festival is village Savateevka of Angarsk district of the Irkutsk region. It is located in the picturesque foothills of The Sayan Mountains, near the mineral springs. Here you can enjoy not only the talented creations of skilled craftsmen of wooden sculptures, but also beauty of virgin Siberian nature, splendor of pine forests, clear water of Siberian river, crystal air and … everything that we forget in the cities, in our bustling everyday life.

The Siberian taiga river Oda, forests of The Sayan Mountains and fields surrounding Lukomorye provide all opportunities for an active all-season rest: river rafting, horse riding, hiking in the woods, riding powerful snowmobiles, dog sledding of famous malamutes, cableway, “air” track – everything you can imagine.

The winners of the first festival of wooden sculpture “Lukomorye — 2011”:

1 место. Dmitry Kizimov and Vladimir Almanov took the 1st place (the city of Sergiev Posad). Composition «Little humpbacked horse»

This work was voted the best not only by members of the jury, but also by the participants of the festival.

2 место. Brothers Ruslan and Vladislav Karelovy shared the 2nd place (the city of Irkutsk) with composition «Goldfish» and Ivan Zuev (village Telma of Usolsky district)) with a magnificent composition «Lukomorye». However, most of the audience called it «Learned Cat».

The sculptures fit perfectly in picturesque pine forest, which spreads along the road leading from the buildings of the children’s camp to the mineral springs flowing into the river Oda.

Many of the sculptures have not only aesthetic but also a functional purpose: they are a fabulous adornment of the forest and can be used as carousels and swings for children.