Grand accordion art festival to be held in Tacheng

Performers play accordions together in Tacheng prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The first Xinjiang Tacheng Accordion Art Festival will be staged in Tacheng city from August 18 to 20, to further pass forward the distinctive accordion culture of Tacheng in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and promote the cultural exchanges among the countries along the "Silk Road Economic Belt".

According to its online press release, the art festival will hold professional competitions, masters' lectures, seminars, activities aimed at setting new Guinness World Record, accordion world champion concert among others.

A total of 1,500 participants will play accordion ensemble, in an effort to break the Guinness World Record of 1,361 people co-playing accordion together in Shenzhen of Guangdong in 2013.

Shan Xiaomei, chief of publicity department of Tacheng city, said that the accordion art festival this time is in a large scale with a high level, as the number of performers is likely to pass 1,600, gathering people from all walks of life from 17 ethnic groups.

Tacheng, located at the border of China and Kazakhstan, is a trans-cultural city, which has been greatly influenced by Russian culture. Dubbed as "city of accordion", Tacheng has a rich history and legacy of accordion. The accordion is akin to a symbol of the city, and out of every 10 people there will be two or three who can play the accordion.