It was decided not to hold the Forkfest festival in 2026

The team of Videlkafest decided not to hold the festival in 2026 due to the security situation in Odesa and the region.

This was announced by one of the festival's organizers, Serhiy Gnezdilov.

"It's very difficult to organize high-quality cultural events in Odesa region. This year, unfortunately, the OKO - International Ethnographic Film Festival, which, despite the war, was held annually in Bolgrad, Kyiv, Odesa, Sofia, will not take place. I'm sorry that I never visited my colleagues, because all my vacations were devoted to the fork. This year, we, the vilkafest team, are taking a year-long forced pause. We are not closing the project completely, but due to the security situation in Odesa and the region, we can no longer organize large-scale events, and we will think about the intimacy of our special events if we find the money for them. The ballistic missile flies less than two minutes to the target. We won't have time to evacuate people. So, there will be no big three-day forkfest in 2026. We believe and hope that in 2027, VylelkaFest will return even bigger and better," he wrote.

The Vydelkafest festival of Ukrainian culture was founded in 2023 by serviceman Serhiy Hnezdilov. The festival's slogan has remained unchanged for three years: "Remember. Fight. Cherish." In particular, remember those who died fighting for the right to be Ukrainian. Fight for yourself, for freedom, for the future. Cherish - culture, community, art, language, memory.

On July 27, 2025, the third festival of Ukrainian culture, Videlkafest, in Odesa, featured, among other things, an evening of combatant poetry with the participation of military personnel and veterans of the war with the Russians.

In July 2024, speaking at the Videlkafest festival in Chornomorsk, Christina Soloviy asked whether the town's residents remembered what the town was called before and was told that it was "Illichivsk." "Total bullshit," the singer said.

Кирило Бойко