cheers p
some gorgeous pics there :)

whatever it is you are doing, P - or how you are doing it.....please don't stop..!

wonderful posts and a map too!!

cheers,

Klondike

Obscure? Khan Altay festival ....
 

More of the series. I thought that you would appreciate the map Klondike ;)

pennywiseguy2

I'm really curious to know exactly where this festival is held. Can we put our heads together and try to decifer a location? I will try....

The locale pictured is reminicent of where the Shabhala Music festival in BC is held. I picture Siberia....

BTW, my Flickr group "Obscure festivals with nudity" is gaining membership fast, in part because of the pics I've added recently from this thread and the Tichovsky Tulen thread.

Kondike

Ok, the location is the Russian republic of Altay, or "Altai" which is way out in the middle of nowhere. Interesting as it makes Khan Altay probably about the most remote event with nudity in the world (OK, disregarding tribal nudity).

That is a long ways from Moscow, probably a couple of thousand miles. The "Khan" in Khan Altay is undoubtedly a reference to Ghengis Khan who once roamed the region.

KLondike

"Khan" - because local people belong to the Turkic language group.

Obscure? Khan Altay festival .....
 

Some more.

pennywiseguy2

Some Altay/Altai region ..
 

Found these in a huge album, from some kind of horse trek in this remote region. (There's even a saddle hanging from the tree in the clothed pic, if you don't believe me :))

pennywiseguy2

yeah, I reread my post and thought I was being a bit presumptuous there......

its good someone will always come a long and set the record straight here...

thanks

KLondike

Пустые Холмы
 

Here are a few more pictures from the festival “Пустые Холмы” (Empty Hills). I found most of them on Picasa.

Пустые Холмы
 

Second part.

Пустые Холмы
 

Third part.

Пустые Холмы
 

Last part.

I'm enthralled :)

I never expected this thread to take off like this. Every day when I log in now, its like "did anyone top yesterday's post? Oh my god!" :)

Mseohlan, thanks for the Russian translation of "Empty Hills" and of course, for the pics which are great. The other day, I figured out where Khan Altay is held, but I still don't know where they hold the Empty Hills festival. I suppose there are a lot of empty hills over in Russia, so I'll need some help narrowing it down a little....

I only wish I had more pics of my own to add. I haven't looked too hard though, so we'll see....

thanks,

Klondike

my measly one pic
 

has this one been posted yet?

Klondike

Empty Hills
 

You haven't been paying attention Klondike ;) check out post 30 with regards to Empty Hills / Пустые Холмы. Or is this a browser issue, where the russian isn't displayed for you? I can see it posted waaaaay back then...

Nevermind. Some great pics from mseohlan. Seriously, thanks for posting! You can definately see that nudity is not the norm at this festival by the frequency that the same girls keep appearing.

I really like this thread.

pennywiseguy2

I found it!

It's 13km from the centre of a town in Russia called Yukhnov. As per the attached image: World / Russia / Kaluga / Yukhnov, 13 km from center = Empty Hills festival!

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=54.6675275...15&l=0&m=a&v=2

EDIT: It appears that the exact location changes each year, so as not to harm any one area. Hopefully this link works with babelfish translation, as the link looks rather messy: http://66.163.168.225/babelfish/tran...about%2fgeo%2f

pennywiseguy2

Flooding the thread with average material ..
 

I took too long to edit the above post so had to make another. I have attached the best (sorry, all pretty small) images from the galleries on the official website.

pennywiseguy2

Some 'Empty Hills' festival
 

I think new to thread? ... it's getting harder to remember.

pennywiseguy2

Some 'Empty Hills' festival ...
 

more.

pennywiseguy2

Found this pic in picasa, it appears to be a match with the wikimapia shot ??
Though they seem to be camped both sides of the river and all over the place.

I saw your post after I dashed mine off. I used the Russian version to find that one pic off of Flickr that I posted yesterday. Funny, but if I put Russian alphabet into Google now, it only comes up as question marks. Flickr works, but Google doesn't for some reason.

thanks for the location info and I'll remember that...

Klondike

Just noticed ..
 

The official site www.holmi.ru has a little 'eng' button, so I really didn't need babelfish .... I guess I'm not so observant in the early hours of the morning.

pennywiseguy2

EDIT: English version doesn't seem to show the same links etc ...... hmmmm

Um....I'm not sure how much I'd believe the translated English version.

It DOES say that included among the participating musicians are The Beatles. :)

sure....playing "Back in the USSR, no doubt.."

Klondike

ait the end come them comeing vary good [ics

In fact the festival takes place at a different place each year. Here is the page were is the list of the previous places : http://www.holmi.ru/about/geo/ , with links to Google Maps. For this year, the information is still a secret. It will take place from 11th to 14th of June.

Note that the festival is also called by the initials : "ПХ2008" or "ПХ 2008" (or 2007, 2006, …).

----
edit: I see now that pennywiseguy2 already gave the page with the locations.

forum of the festival
 

There is a page of the forum with pictures or links to galleries. I have not the time now to explore them, but here is the link : http://www.holmi.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=849 .

Some 'Empty Hills' festival
 

pennywiseguy2

Some 'Empty Hills' festival
 

New to thread (I think) except the last one, which is a bigger version.

pennywiseguy2

*****PHOTO REMOVED*****

Some 'Empty Hills' festival
 

pennywiseguy2

'Empty Hills' - just one
 

Turn around.. just forget the water, and turn around. Trust me.

pennywiseguy2

'Empty Hills' - to replace the one that was deleted
 

I've cut that stupid kid out this time, which is what I should have done in the first place... :)

pennywiseguy2

If you get too wet playing in the fountain, just change (discreetly of course)!

here's 3 more, but i'm not sure where there from?

Wilderness
 

pennywiseguy2

Three Space of Joy; Klondike, can you guess which is for you?

all three? :)

A lot of these "Space of Joy" pics just show people hanging out on the beach. Not that there is a problem with that, but it makes them seem less like "festival" pics. From what I gather, the festival sort of overlooks the water, so its probably just a short walk to the beach. But anyway - if you just lump it all with your Crimea stuff then you don't have a problem with sorting.

Anyway, I sense the Russians aren't sitting there going "now, I wonder if this photo I take is one Klondike is going to have a hard time sorting". Seems they would make an effort to accomodate me, but Oh Well.......:) As if it isn't tough enough just keeping up with and downloading all this new material....

Klondike

Wilderness
 

more

pennywiseguy2

Wilderness
 

some more

pennywiseguy2

I think the only real difference, since Khan Altay is also on a bluff a short walk above the river (rather than SOJ's seaside), is that SOJ is in an actual occupied village, while KA is out in the woods. In both cases, most of the nudity is likely to be by the water, as in the SOJ ones I posted, and the first two here, from KA. SOJ nudity at the "festival" part is quite rare - I think we've only seen one woman, under the canopy - KA's can be a little freer, though still pretty rare: in what's now thousands of photos, I've only found one of this naked conga line...