From February 24 to March 9, 2026, the Donetsk Youth Palace "Yunist" held the VI Open Online Festival "Shevchenko in the Circle of Modern Youth" dedicated to the birthday of the Kobzar.
The festival was held remotely and brought together more than 400 participants from 100 educational institutions from various communities in the Donetsk region.
This year, the festival expanded its geography. Participants from other regions of Ukraine joined in: the Velykosyevastyanivsky Lyceum in the Cherkasy region, the Pereyaslavsky Lyceum named after Volodymyr Monomakh in the Kyiv region, and the Poltava State Medical University.
Participants competed in five age categories and three nominations:
- "Poetry Recitation" – performance of Taras Shevchenko's poetic works;
- "Dedication to the Kobzar" – recitation of works dedicated to the great Ukrainian poet;
- "Original poem" – performance of own poetic works.
The participants' video works impressed with their diversity of performance. The familiar lines of the Kobzar sounded new, each performance had its own intonation – sincere, emotional, sometimes very mature for such a young age.
According to the jury's results, the Grand Prix of the festival was awarded to Sofia Bidiovka (Donetsk Youth Palace "Yunist") and Vitalina Kozieva (Oleksandrivsk Professional Agricultural Lyceum).
The festival received strong support from the audience: about three thousand people took part in the open online voting.