Sheepfold FEST 2nd edition

From 27 to 28 July 2023, from 11:00 to 17:00 will take place the event ,,Stână Fest" 2nd edition. The event will take place in the Open-Air museum in Dumbrava Sibiului, in the meadow in the Păstorit sector, where there will be held interactive workshops and activities specific to shepherding (shearing lambs, milking sheep, preparing rennet, preparing the bellows for storing cheese, curdling milk, preparing curds, boiling whey for the preparation of jintiță, churning butter, workshops on wool processing and sewing of bituști, the benefits of nature, engraving shepherd sticks, etc..). All these activities will be staged by craftsmen and shepherds from the Sibiu Marginimea.

Visitors will be engaged in interactive workshops and musical animations held as part of the cultural project Animă ASTRA, co-funded by Sibiu City Hall through the Cultural Agenda 2023, as follows:

• Tailoring, crochet, felt making that will encourage the public to make various traditional household objects (Shepherding sector, 11.00 - 16.00)
• Carpentry and joinery workshops, carving of shepherd's sticks (Pastoral sector, 12.00 - 15.00)
• Folkloric performance of shepherd songs from the Sibiului Marginimea performed by the Junii Romanian Traditional Music Group (Pastoral sector, 4 pm)

Not to be missed at the sheepfold is shepherd's food. Basic, authentic and nutritious shepherd's dishes will be showcased with demonstration workshops organised as part of the Country Fair programme:

• preparation of sheep's curd and chesse
• milk with baked polenta
• polenta with cheese on a jar
• butter beaten in the buttermilk

Participants will be able to taste the products prepared by the shepherds and get acquainted with the old tastes of cheese from the producers present.

The atmosphere is completed by the diversity of the rocks in the woods of the Pastoral sector and the curation of the exhibition space with the instruments used in the cellar and the boilers. Visitors attending the event will be able to create their own souvenir by making a 3D sheepfold brought to the ASTRA Museum from Rășinari.

The shepherd's daily life and activity is dependent on the existence of the flock of sheep. The practices found at the sheepfold, such as that of milking, the authentic and nutritious gastronomy, the ways of preserving dairy products either using the oldest method of preserving salt or using the coolness of the earth (the pantries such as the one at Câmpu lui Neag) demonstrate that shepherding is an important occupation, in harmony with the environment.

Through the proposed craft workshops we want to show the effectiveness of the use of animal fibres (wool) with the benefits on the body, the benefit of using wooden containers, the tannin in wood that preserves the products instead of plastic containers and the usefulness of plants in pastoral medicine and in dyeing animal fibres without the use of chemicals. There will also be a demonstration workshop on the benefits of nature, an explanatory workshop on medicinal plants that grow in the mountains.