Organisers of a small festival in Russia are hoping to form an alliance with one of Wales' biggest musical events.

The Russian town, which was regarded as a no-go area for tourists until about 10 years ago, wants to twin with the Llangollen International Eisteddfod to gain experience on staging a festival.

Izhevsk in the Udmurt Republic only opened to visitors in 1992 due to its involvement in the military development of arms.

Nadia Utkina stayed in Llangollen

Every year the town hosts the Tchaikovsky festival and organisers are keen to draw on the expertise of the Denbighshire event which attracts thousands of people every year.

Gwyn L Williams, chief executive of the Llangollen event, has just returned from a three week fact finding trip to Russia and is hopeful of extending the partnership between the two towns.

"The possibility of setting up an exchange between two local schools was discussed and generally speaking there is an open invitation for us to visit them," he said.

"It would be very nice to set up twinning arrangements and visits between the two towns."

Competition

Mr Williams said he hopes to set up a regular exchange with organisers and participants of the Tchaikovsky festival.

Udmurt is a small republic with a population of 1.6 million. Around 370,000 people speak the native language but the majority speak Russian.

The exchange has been put in motion after a famous Eastern European folk singer arrived in Llangollen earlier this year to learn about the musical eisteddfod.

More than 6,000 people compete in the festival

Nadia Utkina works for a Philharmonic Society in Izhevsk.

The 35-year-old stayed in the town for a few weeks during the run up to the summer event as part of an Arts Management Programme.

Established in 1947, the musical Eisteddfod is one of the highlights of the Welsh cultural calendar and attracts more than 6,500 competitors from 47 countries each year.