#16 - JRL 7171
Rosbalt
May 6, 2003
Anniversary Celebrations Programme
The celebrations of St. Petersburg`s 300th anniversary will officially start on May 23rd, 2003. The ten days following the anniversary will be full of celebrations, festivals and concerts.
May 23
Celebration of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg will start on May 23. Many exhibitions dedicated to the city will be opened on this day. For example, the doors of the Marble Palace-Museum will open at noon for visitors to see the exhibitions Masterpieces and geniuses. 220 years of the Mariinsky Theatre (1783-2003) and Ludwig`s museum hosted by the Russian Museum. The exhibition St. Petersburg. Portrait of the city and its citizens. From the Russian Museum collection will open in the Benois section of the State Russian Museum at 2 pm. At 4 pm, you will be able to visit an exhibition of amateur photography entitled Photo-wall: Faces of St. Petersburg, organized by Kodak corporation.
A number of business events are planned during this day. A conference of mayors of St. Petersburg`s partner cities will start in Pribaltiyskaya hotel at 11:30. At 12:00 the International congress of cultural, scientific, financial and industrial elite St. Petersburg - Capital of International Culture in the Tavrichesky Palace will begin. One of the most spectacular events of the day will certainly be the Russian yacht clubs anniversary race, starting at 2 pm, on the Martynov embankment. The ceremony of the Honorable citizen of St. Petersburg award will take place at 3 pm in the Legislative Assembly building.
The grand opening of the anniversary decade itself will take place at 6 pm in the Ledovy Palace. The culmination of the day will be the laser show of Hiro Yamagata in honour of the 300th anniversary at 11 pm on the Neva river.
May 24
May 24, 2003 will go under the motto "Noble descendants". For this reason, the usual morning church services in the temples of different confessions will be devoted to solemn thanksgiving services. The following hours will be spent in a similar manner: a laying of wreaths is planned at the Piskarevskoe memorial cemetery and other memorial places. The unveiling of the Peter the First memorial by Sampsonievskiy cathedral will happen at noon, and there will be return-trips on steam boats to the residences of the Russian Tsars.
Of course, there will be a place for entertainment: at 10 am citizens and guests of the city will witness the opening of the St. Petersburg cadets military festival by the building of Peter the Great Marine institution. The military-historical festival St. Petersburg - military capital will start at two o`clock in the afternoon in Pavlovsk. At the same time Petrokholod will arrange an ice-cream festival on Ostrovskiy square.
This period of the city anniversary celebration coincides with the 175th anniversary of the St. Petersburg State Institute of Technology, the celebration of which is planned for 3 pm. One of the most interesting evening events could become an inter-museum exhibition project Riding etiquette: history and the present in Tsarskoe Selo, while students will most likely remember the Anniversary ball of school graduates - 10 000 stars at 10 o`clock in the evening. The first Russian symphonic show The great path of St. Petersburg by the composer Yan Filyarovskiy will be organized at the same time in the city center - on Palace square.
May 25
May 25 is the day of "celebration on every street". And not only on every street - in the suburbs as well. For instance, a cycle race Pushkin`s spring will take off in Pushkin in the morning and go along the highway "Nevskoe koltso". The spectators will enjoy the start of Greco-Roman wrestling in the sports complex NIIEFA in Metallostroy. At two o`clock, in the Central Park of Culture and Recreation, citizens and guests will open an exhibition dedicated to the life and creative work of C.I. Rossi in the Flag Pavilion. In the meantime, the city centre will hold a fashion show St. Petersburg Silhouette and a sailboat The gifts of Youth from Gdansk (Poland) will arrive in the Neva river harbour. The day will end with a musical stage show Come into my temple at 7 pm in the Ledovy Palace.
May 26
This day is a so-called "intellectual day". An hour before noon a presentation of the nominal awards of St. Petersburg government and St. Petersburg scientific centre RAS in the Russian Academy of Sciences will take place at Universitetskaya embankment, 5. Simultaneously, an international scientific conference A.D. Menshikov - first governor of St. Petersburg will start in Menshikov`s Palace.
The 10th St. Petersburg international conference dedicated to integrated navigation systems, convening in the Central Scientific and Research institution Electropribor at 11 am will become one of the most significant events in the scientific world. Meanwhile a complex University labyrinth with the participation of the rectors of the world's leading universities will be opened in the State University of St. Petersburg.
There will be plenty of entertaining events on 26 May. These will include a festive boat regatta to win a frigate Standard in the Neva river harbour at 1 pm, and a gala-concert White nights on Palace Square from 7 to 11 pm. Among the noteworthy business events will be the city anniversary contest of goods and services Made in St Petersburg at the Grand Concert Hall Oktyabrskiy at 3 pm, and an exhibition St. Petersburg-300 in Lenexpo starting at the same time.
May 27
On the actual day of the city`s birthday, May 27, at 10:00 am flowers will be laid by the Bronze Horseman, and at the same time the governor will lay a memorable medal on the sarcophagus of Peter the Great in the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. Believers will hold a religious procession in the central part of the city stretching out from St. Isaac's to Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral. The World Wide club of St. Petersburg residents will meet at the Hermitage Theatre at 3:30 pm.
If anyone thinks that mountain climbing is only about mountains, he is wrong. This will become clear to all those who join a sporting and entertaining show St. Petersburg mountain climbing school - 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg in Moscow`s Victory Park at 2 pm. To those who are fond of "handsome, strong military men", it is recommended to visit the Governor`s parade of the military schools on Palace Square, which will be followed by a concert by Alexander Rozenbaum later in the evening.
Go to St. Petersburg Opera to see a serious musical show - premiere of the play Peter the Great by G. Donitsetti or go to the Mariinsky Theatre to see the opera The Queen of Spades. The main event of the celebration is considered to be a water show, which will take place on the Neva river at 9 pm and a laser show of Hiro Yamagata at 11 pm.
May 28
May 28 has been declared the sports and fitness day. Final contests of the sports day dedicated to the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg at the city stadiums start at 10 am, the street basketball festival at the S.M. Kirov stadium at 11 am and there will be many more events to be visited. An equestrian sport contest will start at noon at the Petrovsky stadium. Among many other events the international dog exhibition of all breeds White nights-2003 will take place at noon at the Sports Palace Zenit and an aqua-bike show St. Petersburg - 300 years in the Neva river harbor at 4 pm, and an anniversary concert Planet Parade with honorable residents of St. Petersburg at the Arkady Raykin Variety Theatre at 7 pm. Fans are invited to a concert of Russian variety stars in honour of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg at the Petrovsky stadium.
May 29
Thursday, May 29, will be a theatre day. Sleepers will be awakened at 10 am by an international festival of military brass bands Show of the marching orchestras in the Sport and Concert Complex Yubileiny, which will last until 11 pm. Performances will go on throughout the day at St. Petersburg theatres. In the evening on Arts square city residents and guests will see an open-air gala-concert of premier performances by the leading Russian choreographs Children of the stray dog on Arts Square; and Alla Pugachyova will give a concert at the Grand Concert Hall Oktyabrsky. May 30
May 30 will mark the birthday of the city's founder. An opera by S.L. Gaudasinsky and A.P. Petrov Peter the First devoted to Peter the Great will be presented in the Ledovy Palace at 7 pm. The following exhibitions will be on display at the Mikailovsky Castle: History of the castle and its inhabitants, St. Petersburg in children`s art, Themes of antiquity in Russian art, The Renaissance age and creation of Russian artists at 1 pm.
A gala-concert from the Mariinsky Theatre will be broadcast worldwide on this day by the BBC. Young people can enjoy the Zemphira group concert within the Forts festival organized in Kronshtadt, in the Petrovsky dock from 8 to 11 pm, as well as a 50-hour dance marathon with the best European and Russian DJs on stage all performing at Fort Shants.
May 31
May 31 is a well known day of international meetings, and a summit of foreign leaders will take place in the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna on this date. Top-level guests will visit the Amber Room after its restoration in Tsarskoe Selo, and an official ceremony and the laser show of Hiro Yamagata on the river Neva between the Troitsky and Dvortsovy bridges.
A rock festival will be the place to go wild all day long, which is going to be arranged by DDT Rock group Ltd at the S.M. Kirov stadium. Guests and residents will be able to stroll, accompanied by the sounds of brass bands and public parties, which will be heard in Kronshtadt, the Summer garden, on the Anchor square and in Petrovsky park. A parade of military brass bands will walk along Nevsky Prospect at 3 pm.
In addition to all that, the following historical places will be opened after restoration during the days of celebration: the Western portal of the Cathedral Mosque (May 25), separate rooms in the building of the Russian Academy of Sciences (May 26), the Mikhaylovsky garden and the new main entrance to the State Hermitage from Palace square (May 27), rooms of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Science Pushkinsky dom (May 29), etc. There will be plenty of local entertainment as well.
This article was provided by 300online.ru website.