THE first concert of the Ternichka Folk Group Tour took place at Evesham Arts Centre on June 17th where the children’s performance was met with rapturous applause. This set the tone for the whole tour with audiences being delighted not only by the moving and professional performance of the folk singers, but also by the young circus artists who travelled with them.

The Ternichka group, aged between 10 and 17, were accompanied on the accordion by their musical director Dimitry Saroka, and young musicians playing zithers. The group performed a beautiful variety of traditional songs and dances, finishing every evening with Kalinka before swooping off the stage to grab members of the audience to join them in a final joyful dance.

The circus children, just 8 to 12 years old, juggled, uni-cycled and gave a display of gymnastics which at times left their audiences gasping in disbelief.

At most venues the Belarusians were joined by local performers, notably the Kalinka Balalaika Ensemble in Manchester and Fosbrooks young musicians and dancers in Stockport.

The tour was organised by Chernobyl Children's Project (UK) and most of the individual concerts were organised by the project's local groups - in Evesham, Gloucester, Endon & Stoke and Leeds. Participation in the Middlewich Folk Festival, where many of the photos were taken, was instigated by Heart, Hope, Help. In Wirksworth the concert was organised by the Bonsall Link of Chernobyl Children Lifeline, chaired by Chris Broome, who is an active member of the Remember Chernobyl working group - and they were supported by many other local Lifeline Links. And the final concert of the tour at the Wiltshire Music Centre was organised by Belarusian Ray of Hope.

We also received superb support from another charity when the tour bus broke down early in the week. The children had travelled from Minsk in a very comfortable coach and all seemed well until a problem developed with the gears in Evesham. The bus had to be limped to a nearby service centre for assessment and was clearly going to be off the road for a while.

Mike Worton of Chernobyl 2000 helped to arrange the first assessment of the mechanical problems, and the loan of a coach from Dudley’s in Inkberrow for Sunday and Monday and then again for two days at the end of the tour.  Mike came up from Evesham to Buxton to collect the children and take them down to Bradford on Avon for their last concert. We are very grateful to him and to Dudley’s Coaches.

Other heroes of the tour were Ian Lacey, one of our regular convoy team who devoted three days to driving the coach; John Gater and John Cox in Leek who provided minibuses and helped with checking out the coach and giving their professional advice; Denis Moors who hosted the whole group of 32 people for a week at his Field Study centre near Longnor; and Frank McGregor who accompanied most of the tour to handle technical problems. A special thank you must go to Irina Zuyonak from Children in Trouble, who was the interpreter for the tour and introduced many of the performances.

Significant gear box problems have meant that the coach is still not on the road, so the children had to be sent home by another route. After exploring an offer of cheap coach travel from Holland, we were delighted when Yuri Sobolev, Manager of Belavia, offered us cheap flights from Gatwick and we were able to send the children back to Minsk by plane.

Coach problems apart, the tour has been a wonderful experience for the young people who took part and all those who have had the privilege of watching them. If you stayed at home watching England on Sunday 25th when you could have been at the Ternichka Concert, you made the wrong decision!

There was great enthusiasm expressed for a further tour within the next couple of years. Most of those who came this June would not hesitate to come again, and would make sure they brought many friends with them now they know just how good both the folk group and the circus performers are. At Stoke on Trent where the 200-plus seat Forum Theatre was almost full, many remarked that we will need bigger venues next time.  So watch this space!