Description of the attraction
In mid-August 2006, the first international blacksmithing festival was held on the central street of Ulyanovsk. Masters of an almost forgotten craft from twenty-eight cities of Russia and neighboring countries, among whom were honored blacksmiths of artistic forging and very young metal artists, exchanged experiences, sharing the secrets of art and demonstrating their skills. For several days the city turned into one big smithy: in front of the amazed audience, under the clatter of hammers, the grandiose construction "Wind organ" emerged from a multitude of anvils.
The authors of the ideas that turned Ulyanovsk into a real Mecca for blacksmiths were local blacksmiths' masters with the support of the administration. The Singing Metal Festival was so colorful and festive that it was decided to hold such events every two years, thereby opening a new page of blacksmithing skills. Later, masters from Italy, Poland, Finland, Australia and the Czech Republic attended the festivals, which gave the festival an international status.
The culmination of the festival was the installation of an eight-meter-high "Wind Organ" structure, weighing about two tons, with the city's emblem next to the building of the regional philharmonic society. The uniqueness of the cast-iron sculpture lies in the outgoing sound when the wind gusts from pipes of different sizes and stretched strings. There is no analogue of the Ulyanovsk stringed metal instrument in Russia yet.
