On September 1, the annual martial arts festival will be held at the Ivanovo Palace of team sports.

On September 1, the annual martial arts festival will be held at the Ivanovo Palace of team sports.

This year the regional festival will be held for the sixth time and for the third year in a row – at the Palace of team sports. The martial arts festival is one of the largest in the Ivanovo region.

The parade of participating athletes will open the festive program of the festival. Guests of the festival will see demonstration performances of 11 sports federations and clubs of the Ivanovo region with the participation of titled athletes of such sports as: Kudo, Kyokushin, Taekwondo, Kickboxing, Thai boxing, Judo, Boxing, Kendo, Wushu, Sambo, Wrestling in the disciplines of Pankration and Grappling, Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, Eastern martial arts in the disciplines of Shotokan and Kobudo. Karate school students will demonstrate the tameshiwari technique, which is breaking solid objects with bare hands.

Before and after the event, everyone will be able to take pictures with titled athletes of the region, winners of the European and World Championships.

In addition, during the festival, parents will be able to choose a type of martial arts for their child, sign up for a section or receive a certificate for a free trial training session with a professional trainer. To this end, each federation will prepare its information stands in the hall of the Team Sports Palace, which will provide detailed information about the type of martial arts. Participants will be able to communicate with titled athletes and learn the secrets and subtleties of combat skills.

According to representatives of the federations, the experience of last year’s festivals showed that about half of the children after such familiarization trainings remain in the martial arts sections. Guests of the festival are expected to draw gifts from sports federations. To do this, each spectator at the entrance to the Palace of team sports will be given a free entrance ticket. The lucky ones will become owners of sports equipment, paraphernalia and ammunition.

The festival will start at 12.00 with the opening of the exhibition and presentation zone of sports federations in the arena hall, and at 13.00 the athletes will perform at the arena.

Last year, the festival gathered more than 2,000 spectators who saw demonstration performances by about 300 athletes, including young ones. Performances were held simultaneously on two tatami, so the event turned out to be more spectacular. Even such exotic martial arts as kendo, a modern Japanese martial art of fencing with bamboo swords, and kobudo, a traditional Okinawan style of wielding various types of edged weapons, were also presented.

From the very beginning in 2018, the festival aroused interest among Ivanovo residents and attracted a large number of spectators and participants. And the construction in 2020 of a large sports complex of the Palace of team sports, the arena of which can accommodate up to 1000 participants and up to 2500 spectators, helped to make it large-scale.