Rising Star Festival: Ukraine's Longer-Running American Idol

The Rising Star Festival of Jewish culture has become a yearly tradition. Every year, the Rising Star Festival gives stage to an assortment of Jewish singers, dancers, choral groups, and bands. It is an opportunity for all members of the region to gather together to enjoy the talent of the Jewish community and hear the traditions of Jewish culture and music.

This year, the 6th year of the festival, was larger than ever, including more participants than years past from distant towns and cities. For the first time, Northern Ukraine also participated in the festival, making it an especially varied regional event.

The Rising Star Festival was held in stages, starting in each town and city, and culminating in the regional gala show for all of Northern and Eastern Ukraine in Dnepropetrovsk:
Local Community Events – each community held their own Rising Star Festival, where only the winners continued on to compete in the district festival competition.
District Festival Competition – larger festivals for big cities and their periphery took place in:
Pavlograd – for Dnepropetrovsk district (Dnepropetrovsk, Dneprodzerzhinsk, Krivoy Rog and Kremenchug), on March 30th, hosting more than 250 people and 160 participants.
Mariupol – for Donetsk district (Artyomovsk, Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Dobropolye and Druzhovka), on March 30th, hosting more than 500 people and 93 participants.
Zaporozhye – for Zaporozhye district (Melitopol, Berdyansk) on May 11th, hosting approximately 400 people and 125 participants.
Lugansk – for Lugansk district (Rubezhoe, Severodonetsk, Alchevsk, Krasny Luch, Stachanov, Lisichansk and Pervomaisk), on May 11th, hosting 500 people and 220 participants.

Each of these shows selected one representative for the the Gala-show, which took place in Dnepropetrovsk, on May 14th, gathering 250 finalists from 14 vocal and dance groups from Artyomovsk, Kremenchug, Krivoy Rog, Dneprodzerzhinsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Lugansk and Melitopol, as well as seven groups with 59 participants from the Northern Ukraine cities of Kharkov, Lubny and Konotop.

The colorful performances included one by "Tsimeret," a vocal group from Artyomovsk, an acrobatic performance from Kremenchug, a ‘retro’ group from Dneprodzerzhinsk, and a children’s violinist group called "Fidele" from Dnepropetrovsk, to name only a few.

Young, energetic children came to share their love for Jewish tradition, through dancing, singing and performing at this unique festival. The atmosphere was very creative and artistic and gave an opportunity for young talents from different communities to make close ties and connect with other Jews their age from different cities and towns in Northern and Eastern Ukraine. All participants in the exciting performance and festival received a certificate of appreciation for their contribution to Jewish culture and their community.

Especially appreciative of the performances were members of the audience from the JDC Hesed Welfare Centers for elderly Jews, Tikvah program for disabled children, and Yadid Program for special needs children and young adults. The Rising Star Festival is a yearly event that makes a major contribution to the Jewish musical and cultural life of Northern and Eastern Ukraine.