Sabantuy 2021 to cost a million dollars

Youth festival has been added to traditional Sabantuy

73,4 million rubles will be spent on holding Sabantuy in 2021 in Kazan, according to the documents of the Directorate for Competition Policy and Procurement of the city. This year, the main event of the “plow festival” takes place at the traditional site in the Birch Grove in the village of Mirny, as well as festive sites will unfold in Derbyshki, at the Kazan Hippodrome, and in the forest park near Lake Lebyazhye. According to the decree of President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Sabantuy will be held on June 12 in the villages, in Naberezhnye Chelny the celebration is scheduled for June 19, in Kazan — on June 26.

38,4 million rubles will be spent on holding Sabantuy in the village of Mirny and at the Kazan Hippodrome. The tender includes all the traditional competitions for Sabantuy, such as breaking pots, carrying eggs, and belt wrestling. There are even requirements for a prize ram — the weight is not less than 100 kg and that with twisted horns and hair without shreds.

Another 31 million will go to the organisation of the “plow festival” in Derbyshki and near Lake Lebyazhye. In the documentation of this tender, it is noted that at least 25,000 people are expected to participate at these sites, and it is not known how many are expected at the first two sites. On Lebyazhye and in Derbyshki, the “maydans” will be divided into central and children's, again with traditional competitions for this holiday.

Also, 1,3 million rubles will be spent on the transport support of the holiday — more precisely, on the transportation of technical staff, teams, and so on. The winner of the tender (Burevestnik Transport Company) will provide 31 buses on the day of the holiday and a smaller number — on the days of rehearsals.

Finally, this year the city will spend 2,5 million rubles on the organisation of the youth festival Yana Sabantuy. The event is based on a five-hour concert programme, as well as various competitions (the technical specification mentions, for example, contests for eating ochpochmaks and chak-chak for speed, as well as some Extreme Karaoke) and competitions in street sports — parkour, BMX, skateboarding, and riding a scooter. The latter, in light of the ongoing struggle for the safety of electric scooters, can probably be attributed to extreme sports.

Where the Yana Sabantuy will be held — the specifications do not say, the site will be agreed with the mayor's office after the results of the tender are summed up.

Security costs money, even when Sabantuy is already over

The amount of spending on Sabantuy this year is even slightly more than in 2019: then, according to the calculations of Realnoe Vremya, the total amount of tenders amounted to 73,1 million rubles. In 2019, the high-ranking guest, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, attended Sabantuy in Tatarstan.

In 2020, Sabantuy did not take place in large cities due to the situation with the coronavirus, it was held only in rural areas. However, on July 4, the so-called online Sabantuy was held in Tatarstan.

To the 73 million this year (and in previous years), one can also add the cost of protecting property for holding Sabantuy in the Birch Grove throughout the year — the city spends 1,8 million rubles annually for this purpose. At least the last two years, this is the case with Ateko Private Security Company — which also protects Kazan universities, as well as state institutions in Kazan.

By Alexander Artemyev
Tatarstan