Vitebsk Oblast is a region with a rich cultural heritage and significant creative potential.
In Vitebsk Oblast in the field of culture, there are operating 444 libraries, 391 club institutions, 27 museums, 2 teaching centers, the Lyalka Theater, the oblast philharmonic society, 3 parks of culture and recreation, a zoo, 59 children's art schools, 3 secondary specialized educational institutions of culture, continuing education courses, 7 film and video rental organizations.
More than 100.000 events are held annually in Vitebsk Oblast, including 10 international, 2 republican, more than 40 oblast festivals, holidays, shows, contests.
The visiting card of the oblast is the International Festival of Arts “Slavic Bazaar in Vitebsk”. The festival pleases and surprises with the variety of related cultural events and projects.
The Braslaski Zarnitsa International Festival of Traditional Culture (Braslav), the International Folk Music Festival Zvinyats Tsymbaly I Harmonik (Postavy), the Dnieper Voices in Dubrovno International Song and Music Festival, the International Holiday “Cherry Festival” (Glubokoe), the International competition of young pop singers “Hali-Halo” (Novopolotsk), the International Festival of Ancient and Contemporary Chamber Music (Polotsk), the International Festival of Organ Music ”Zvany Safii” (Polotsk), International Festival of Contemporary Choreography (Vitebsk), I.I.Sollertinsky International Music Festival (Vitebsk), Republican Socio-Cultural Project “Festival of Two Rivers” (Dokshitsy), Yuri Tarich Republican Open Competition of Amateur Films "I make films", Republican Festival-Contest of Circus Art "Arena" (Orsha) and others are widely known outside the oblast.
Large-scale events are held within the oblast festival-fair of village toilers "Dozhinki".
In the cultural institutions of the oblast, there are more than 3.000 creative formations. 564 teams have the honorary name “national” and “exemplary”. 16 teams have the title “Honored Amateur Team of the Republic of Belarus”.
International cooperation is carried out with more than 40 foreign countries. Creative groups of Vitebsk Oblast regularly represent national culture abroad.