Losevo, Russia—The seventh edition of the eco-tourist festival Eco-Losevo, held in the Karelian Isthmus near Russia’s border with Finland, became a meeting place for old and new friends.
The favorite glade of the participants has now become a comfortable tourist base. For the second year, Vuoksa Park—a vacation destination for athletes, tourists and nature lovers—welcomed participants of the festival, held from June 14 to 16, 2019.
The motto of this year’s festival was “Let's live ecologically! We are all in the same boat!”
This year, according to tradition, there was rafting along the Burnaya River. But the main challenge was picking up garbage in the wet, cool weather. The participants enthusiastically raked the local elemental dump and cleaned up the rubbish left on the shore by holidaymakers.
Such festivals unite people of different nationalities and religions. This time among the 80 participants there were representatives of at least six faiths as well as people of goodwill.
The common objective, the beauty of nature, sincere talks, songs and games—all this brings people together, blurring the boundaries of ideologies, allowing participants to feel like one family on our beautiful planet.
The participants themselves, who come to the festival together with their families and friends, note that they are revealing new facets of the soul to each other. Serving others, going beyond his or her personal interests and even the interests of the family, a person becomes more attractive and interesting.
This year, the festival was again international, because volunteers from Finland participated in it. They prepared and conducted an interesting quiz. Foreign guests were volunteers of the Bellona Environmental Law Center, another partner of the festival this year.
It is nice to see that some people come to the festival a second and a third time, feeling part of a team and joining organizational work.
One of the objectives of the festival is the creation of a culture of outdoor recreation and formation of a responsible and caring attitude to the world around us. The second goal is the creation of a network of people of goodwill, involving local authorities, businesses, non-profit organizations that are ready to share responsibility for clearing debris from recreation places, a system of measures that promote development of public skills and principles of harmonious existence in the natural world.
Among the project’s organizing partners were the Vuoksa Park recreation center, the Bellona Environmental Law Center, and Olga Selezneva with the Kangaroo eco-bag project. We were supported by the municipal service.
Festival participants collected and recycled about 1 ton of garbage. The small amount of garbage collected is explained by the fact that the riverbank had been cleaned recently, and that holidaymakers are becoming more responsible and taking their rubbish with them.
Games, lectures and quizzes on ecology, master classes and creative evenings contributed to developing a team spirit and manifesting the best qualities of the participants, helping them to learn something new about themselves and about each other.
At the festival, each of us became a little better! We wish that everyone will keep this spirit internally and give the world the best version of you every day! Join us next year!
And remember that we are all in the same boat. Let's live ecologically, thinking of others! Each festival participant realized that trying to live for the common good brings true happiness and a sense of self-value, belonging, true human friendship and love in relationships with like-minded people and nature.