At first some words about the "Author's Song". The name is not too clear, but it's difficult to find a better one. The "Author's Song" is born of Romance and Poetry and, in fact, it is a Musical Poetry. Because its performers are named as bards at times. Its name Author's Song had acquired in sixty's when many sang their own (author's) songs.

In the general, its singers are both amateur and semi- professional. (It is interesting to note that frequently a performer's creation becomes worse if he becomes a professional!) The melody is usually pretty simple. An acoustic guitar is the most usual accompaniment. This song is the most popular among Russian intellectuals. Sometimes it is named a tourist, a hiking song. But latter is only a variety of the former. The definition (but it's too long to name) of Author's Song may be: it is a modern town's folklore of intellectuals.

Up to one hundred thousand listeners and thousands of performers attend the Grushin Festival which honours a hiker, a member of the "Singing Beavers" who perished in 1967 while saving drowning children in the Uda river in Siberia.

People gather to sing, to listen, to play and enjoy the friendly atmosphere. Some (especially businessmen) go for helpful contacts. Where else can you play football with the mayor of a town or have a campfire talk with bank manager and other VIP?

This kind of our music is almost unknown in the West because to understand and to fully enjoy an Author's Song, the listener needs to know both Russian language and Russian life. Nevertheless, the Grushin festival becomes more international year by year. About a hundred foreign guests came last year.

The annual Grushin Festival is conducted the first week-end in July in the countryside near Samara. In addition there is a season of concerts in the town at concert halls. The one begin in October with concert "А я по вас соскучился, ребята" ("I miss you, boys") and end in March with "A small Grushin Festival" - a series of concerts "Сверим наши песни" ("Let's collate of our songs").

The festival is free. A tent, a rucksack, a good mood and food for four days help you enjoy the festival.

1993

P.S.(2003) Unfortunately, the spirit of author's song was effaced from main,  official  stages of the festival at the last years.

But the huge body of the festival is bearing the new, alternative stages: "Kolskij Bugorok" ("Kola Knoll"), "Na pen'kakh" ("On stubs") and "Zazerkal'e" (The "Beyond-Mirrorland", or Wonderland):

Official site of the Grushin Club: http://grushin.samara.ru/

Member of a sound recording group of the Grushin club
Sergey Fedosov

It looks as if finish. Two festivals runs, everybody quarrels with everybody, money, commerce, grants, courts.