 What is the secret hiding in the eyes of this rider, half-turned to face the visitors? The people of Novosibirsk visiting the opening of the Eighth International Siberian Festival of Snow Sculpture have quite a few questions. What is the animal at the bottom of this composition, why is the taiga woman sitting on a reindeer?
How does one explain to them, that Tuva has not only reindeer, but camels as well…
- At first we wanted to make the tail like on a horse, - laughs Belek Kuzhuget, instructor in stone-carving at Public School No.13 from Bai-Taiga. - They swamped us with questions, so we decided to make the reindeer more natural. After all, the "Lady Guardian" is a woman from a legend. But they say that one of the old masters of our district had really seen her…  So we decided to incarnate the mythical image here, in Novosibirsk. Folk colorit is very important to us.
This is already the third time that Belek is participating in the international festival for the Mayor's Prize of Novosibirsk, and the second time for Syldys Oidup. They created their snowy child in four stipulated days according to the sketch of the latter. The work was easy, snow is soft in Novosibirsk, the weather was magical, and they fulfilled all that they envisioned. Even though it was not easy to make ice sculptures. According to the rules, use of electrical instruments was not permitted, an all the work had to be done without use of dyes, lights or artificial construction supports.
 At the central square of the Siberian megalopolis, Lenin Square, next to the main Christmas tree of the city, is where the sculptures of fifteen adult teams from Biysk, Tomsk, Barnaul, Seversk, Kemerovo, Omsk, Irkutsk, Sochi, as well as from the Ukraine and Kazakhstan were located. Novosibirsk also presented 12 children's teams.
This year there was a great freedom of choice of the theme. The work could be dedicated to the 100th anniversary of honorary citizen of Novosibirsk Marshall Pokryshkin, 120th anniversary of founding of the capital of Western Siberia, and also to the Year of Environment Protection, which was declared in Russia.
So all the participants in the festival filled their page in the history of Novosibirsk, and brought their contribution to the development of its trademark image, and a great thank you to them for it, - as the mayor Vladimir Gorodetskiy emphasized in his speech at the ceremony of presentation of results.
 Unfortunately, the anthem of victory did not sound to the honor of Tuvan masters this time. The main prize of the festival was won by home team from Novosibirsk - for their composition "City - Orchard".
The delegates from the republic in the Center of Asia were awarded honorary diplomas of participation and souvenir medals. But the artists from Tuva are not offended. The main reason, after all, why they came here - was to gain experience and practice of participation in responsible competitions.
And one day, their day of stardom will come for them, too.
Possibly it may happen quite soon. The Tuvan team will remain in Novosibirsk to take part in the World Forum of Snow, dedicated to the international Day of Snow. Delegates from various counties - Denmark, Norway, Indonesia - will come to the capital of Western Siberia… as part of this forum, the international congress "Ecology of Northern Territories" will take place, as well as a Snow Evening of the Russian ballet, international beauty contest "Miss Snow World" and international championship of snow sculpture.
Let fortune smile on the Tuvan masters!
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Society 
