A badger festival with stand-up and various attractions will be held in Polesia
An unusual festival will take place in Belarus at the end of June.
It is entirely dedicated to one animal — the badger. The organizers themselves call it "the most mysterious and funniest resident of the forest". The event, called "Badger Night", will take place in the Pripyatsky National Park on June 20-21, writes Onliner.by.
This is a forest tourist base called "Khlupinskaya Buda" — one of the wildest places in the national park.
The program is unexpected. For example, you will be able to hear (perhaps for the first time in history) a stand-up comedy about badgers. A quest and a master class are also planned.
The main part of the event will take place in the evening forest. Visitors will be able to see a real badger town live and study its structure on site. The entire excursion will take about two hours.
Afterwards, guests of the festival will be able to light a bonfire and walk to an abandoned village to the "Badger's House". They might be lucky to meet owls and hear wolves. Even the grill menu for the day has been named "Sated Badger". But there's no cause for concern — no forest dweller was harmed.
In the morning, you can go on an excursion — "with a badger" — along the "Khlupinskaya Buda" eco-trail. In addition, a bathhouse, billiards, and bicycle rental await those interested. Participants gather in Turov, but those interested can also be picked up in Lyaskavichy or Zhitkovichy.
Participation in the festival is paid. Including accommodation, meals, transfer, and entertainment, the cost for adults is 190 rubles, for children aged 6 to 16 — 170 rubles.
Badgers are called true architects of wild nature. They create huge underground "cities" with hundreds of meters of labyrinths, ventilation, and separate bedrooms that are passed down through generations and can expand over millennia.
These animals are maniacal clean freaks: they regularly change the dry grass bedding in their nests and equip special toilets — cesspits far outside living areas. They go into winter hibernation, doubling their weight by autumn, accumulating fat. Their thick skin is so unique that it protects against bee stings, snake bites, and even the teeth of large predators, allowing the badger to literally twist inside its own fur to deliver a counter-attack.