The 13th International Tulum and Kemenche Festival held in Rize this year turned into a great feast with the participation of local and foreign dance groups. In addition to Turkey, a 550-person folk dance group from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Ossetia, Greece, Iran, Dagestan and Georgia took the stage at the festival and gave the audience unforgettable moments.
The center of the festival was the stage set up on the coast of Portakallık Neighborhood. Here, teams displaying the cultural richness of various countries offered enjoyable moments to the audience with their traditional dances. In addition, among the colorful events of the festival was the “Fastest hot tea drinking” competition.
The contestants participating in this year’s competition fought fiercely to drink the hottest tea in 2 minutes. During the competition, the Iranian and Turkish representatives tied by drinking 3 cups of tea each. However, in the re-run, the Turkish representative Yiğit Kaan Gök managed to win the first place cup by drinking 2.5 more cups of tea in the same amount of time. Festival Committee Chairman Hakan Güven presented Gök with his cup. After receiving his cup, Gök posed for Yusuf Dikeç, who won the silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics and is known for his shooting style that has attracted attention worldwide. The OSTİM Technical University Dance Group team also came on stage to congratulate Gök on his victory.
Yiğit Kaan Gök said, “I am very happy to be the winner of the tea drinking competition. It was my first time participating in this event and the tea was really hot. My opponents were also very strong. My Iranian friend and I tied, “But when we competed again, I managed to win. This was a fun experience for me. I wanted to pose for our athlete who won a medal in the Olympics.”
Festival committee chairman Hakan Güven stated that the competition was tough this year and said, “We were wondering who would drink the most tea and the fastest in the hot tea drinking competition, which has become a traditional part of the Tulum and Kemençe Festival. This “This year is the 13th year of our festival. We congratulate our brother who came in first. We have not seen such a draw in previous years.”
