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Up to 7,000 people are expected to participate in the fourth annual international biker festival ‘Facing the Ocean’, which starts August 11 in the Peschanaya Bay in southern Primorye, a press statement from the festival organizing committee reported.

The three-day festival will corral bikers from various regions of Russia, as well as guests from foreign countries, such as Germany, USA, Poland, Austria, Japan, Australia and Ukraine. This year, more participants from Russia’s regions and from abroad are expected at the festival, the statement said.

The event is organized with assistance of Primorye’s administration and the administration of Partizansky County. The program includes various contests and competitions, with winners receiving prizes and presents, the statement reported. Among the events are Russian Far East Motorcycle Race Championship, motorcycle football competition, women’s wrestling in dirt and riding hot air balloons.

The festival attendants will also fancy performances by rock bands from the Russia’s Far East and the country’s other regions. A special performance will also be delivered by the Far Eastern Fleet Orchestra, the statement said.

At the moment, various groups of motorcyclists are making their way to Primorye on their bikes, despite the anticipated difficulties they sometimes have to face along the roads.

According to a group of motorcyclists, who are traveling to the festival from St. Petersburg on Russian Ural and Planeta bikes, Russian motorcycles do not perform well on Russia’s roads. Nevertheless, some of the foreign travelers still favor Russian bikes, such as a Belgian biker who is traveling to the festival on an Ural bike, the statement revealed.

“For me and my bike this trip to Primorye is a kind of swan song,” the statement quotes an American biker Doug Woske, who is traveling from the state of Alabama to Russia where he will ride his old motorbike Indian to Primorye. According to the motorcyclist, his antique bike, which was manufactured in 1974, should have been placed in a museum long ago. Nevertheless, he says, he and his bike ‘still prefer road and traveling to museums.’

Last year, the festival took place in the bay of Kozino and gathered about 9,000 participants.

More information and pictures can be found at the site www.sinus.vl.ru.