Ysyakh Festival

Ysyakh marks the summer solstice and the start of the short northern summer, and it is the main festival of the Sakha year - held on open ground, with the largest gathering at Us Khatyn near Yakutsk drawing many tens of thousands of people. The core is old: an algys, a blessing spoken by an elder at sunrise; kumys, fermented mare's milk, drunk from carved wooden choron cups and sprinkled to the fire and the air; hitching posts called serge set up as ritual markers; and osuokhai, a circle dance in which people link arms and move sunwise while a leader sings lines the circle answers, going on for hours and taking in anyone who joins. There are wrestling, horse racing, high jump over stacked poles, mas-wrestling with a stick, and the sunrise greeting on the second morning, when the whole field faces east. Dress is often the embroidered Sakha costume.

What you actually see

• The osuokhai circle - a linked-arm dance moving sunwise for hours with call and response.
• The kumys - fermented mare's milk drunk from carved choron cups and offered to the fire.
• The sunrise greeting - the field turning east to meet the sun on the second morning.
• The contests - wrestling, horse racing and the pole jump on the same ground.

When to go

Late June, on dates set each year around the solstice. Two days if you want the sunrise.

Honest expectations

It is enormous and crowded, with limited facilities on the field and long queues for everything. Nights are short but cold, and mosquitoes are severe. Kumys is an acquired taste. Accommodation in Yakutsk is booked out at festival time.

Nearby

Yakutsk is a short drive; the Lena Pillars are upriver.