The name Basowiszcza was coined in 1989 from the abbreviation containing
the first letters of the organiser, the Belarusian Association of Students
(BAS) which gathers young Belarusians born in Poland. Over its 17-year
history the festival has been invariably held near the little village of
Haradok in the Podlaskie province along the eastern borders of Poland, the
home of the most numerous Belarusian minority groups living in Poland.