I.Metshin: "It is important that every citizen can meet their cultural needs"

(Kazan, KZN.RU, December 15, by Adelya Galieva). The Intellectual Literature Festival, which was held last week at the Center for Contemporary Culture "Smena," was attended by about 1.5 thousand Kazan residents and visitors. The fact that the festival was in demand in the age of the Internet and television shows that the capital of Tatarstan is still a reading city. Starting next year, proclaimed to be  Year of Literature, the event will be held twice annually, so that everyone could meet their cultural needs, said Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin at today's Business Monday meeting.

The Intellectual Literature Festival was the final project in the framework of Year of Culture. Among the Festival attendees were writer Viktor Erofeyev, Islamic philosopher and social activist Geidar Jemal, literary critic and editor of the culture magazine "Russky Reporter" Konstantin Milchin, writer Andrey Astvatsaturov and art critic and curator Egor Larichev.

Festival attendees were able to become acquainted with book publishers, participate in educational workshops, listen to lectures and purchase books at wholesale prices. The fair featured books published by more than 50 Russian publishing houses, most of which will not be sold in chain stores.

Ilsur Metshin noted that the Year of Culture program turned out to be quite crowded. "In fact, Kazan has never been short of cultural events catering for every taste – opera, ballet or classical music festivals. But the fact that we do not stop looking for new ways to promote culture says a lot," said the mayor.

Evaluating theYear of Culture results, the mayor called the "Literary Courtyards" project and the Intellectual Literature Festival "discoveries of the year." "We have received an unexpected powerful rush of positive energy," said the mayor, adding that people had been waiting for such projects.

"The fact that more than a thousand locals and visitors of all ages and their families attended the festival in the age of the Internet and television shows that Kazan is still a reading city," said Ilsur Metshin. The mayor thanked the organizers for their initiative and said that starting next year, the festival will be held twice annually, in spring and on New Year's Eve.

"It is important that every resident of our city has the opportunity to meet their cultural needs, whatever their taste, and that our children can realize their talents without leaving the city," summed up the mayor.