White Nights Festival

The White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia is an annual international cultural event. The White Nights Festival consists of a series of classical ballet, opera and music events and includes performances by Russian dancers, singers, musicians and actors, as well as famous international guest stars. The Scarlet Sails celebration is the culmination of the White Nights season, the largest public event anywhere in Russia with the annual estimated attendance about one million people, most of whom are students from hundreds of schools and colleges, both local and international.

Organised by the Saint Petersburg City Administration, the festival begins in May with the "Stars of the White Nights" at Mariinsky Theatre and ends in July. However, some performances connected to the festival take place before and after the official dates.

Highlights of the White Nights Festival

Classical ballet, opera, music at the White Nights Festival

. [Valery Gergiev [http://www.valerygergiev.com/ Official website] ]

The "Stars of the White Nights" festival was originally started by the first mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, and has been held annually since 1993. Some of the stars who performed here include Placido Domingo, Olga Borodina, Alfred Brendel, Anna Netrebko, Carlo Maria Giulini, Yuri Temirkanov, Gidon Kremer, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alexander Toradze, Deborah Voigt, James Conlon and many other classical performers. [History of the festival: [http://www.ticketsofrussia.com/white-nights/history.html] ]

The "Stars of the White Nights Festival" runs from May through July at the Mariinsky Theatre and the newly built Mariinsky Concert Hall - one of the best-sounding halls in the world. For 2008, expect world-class performances by Valery Gergiev, Christoph Eschenbach, Alfred Brendel, Maxim Vengerov, Maria Guleghina, Bryn Terfel and Thomas Hampson, not to mention the ultimate Mariinsky ballerinas Ulyana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva.

Tickets to the Festival performances: because of the high demand, sometimes tickets are sold out several weeks before the performance date. If you are a traveler to St. Petersburg, it is better to buy tickets in advance - getting tickets on the spot after your arrival to St. Petersburg may become quite expensive. The safest and best place to buy tickets is at the theatre's official website [http://www.mariinsky.ru/ www.mariinsky.ru/] .

carlet Sails celebration

, known in Russian as "Alye Parusa" festivity. The event is highly popular for spectacular fireworks and a massive show celebrating the end of the school year: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ3Wv0xscJQ"Scarlet Sails" celebration in St. Petersburg]

This tradition began here after the end of World War II, when schools united to celebrate the ending of a school year in connection with symbolism of the popular children's book "Scarlet Sails" by Alexander Grin. At that time a boat with scarlet sails was sailing along the English Embankment and the Admiralty Embankment towards the Winter Palace. Although it was designed to update the rusty revolutionary propaganda, the "Scarlet Sails" tradition has become a popular public event, annually celebrating the ending of the school year in June. The "Scarlet sails" appearance is now the most popular part of the White Nights celebration.

The popularity of both the book and the tradition was boosted after the 1961 release of the movie titled "Alye parusa" ("Scarlet sails" in English), starring Anastasiya Vertinskaya and Vasily Lanovoy. [Film "Scarlet Sails" on the IMDb: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054618/] ]

Carnivals of the White Nights

A series of carnivals take place during the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. The largest and most internationally renowned carnival takes place in the Peterhof suburb of St. Petersburg. There actors dressed in period costumes from the times of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great give performances reproducing some of the historic events of that period. Period carriages are ridden around the Peterhof park as part of the carnival.

Carnivals at the Catherine Palace and in the Pavlovsk suburb of St. Petersburg are renowned for their highly artistic reproduction of the historic events that took place at those palaces. Period carriages are driven around the Catherine park as part of the carnival entertainment.

The Palace Square in St. Petersburg serves as a natural stage for numerous carnival events and appearances showing period costumes of the Tsars and Tsarinas.

tar performances at the Palace Square

and other stars.

Star appearances are usually connected with the White Nights, though some appearances may not coincide with the time of the White Nights Festival because of individual schedules or other reasons (such as the postponement of the Rolling Stones' appearance in 2006 owing to the temporary disability of Keith Richards). In July 2007, the "Stones" rolled their show in front of the Tsar's Winter Palace before a crowd of 50 thousand Russian fans.

White Nights Festival in the media

Several film festivals take place around the time of the White Nights Festival.

During the entire season of the White Nights the St. Petersburg news media, newspapers and television are focused on the White Nights Festival, showcasing its numerous events.

References

External links

*White Nights Foundation: [http://www.wnfa.org/festivalstars.htm White Nights Foundation of America]
*Stars of the White Nights Festival of Arts (11 May - 13 July 2008): [http://www.balletandopera.com/link/white-nights-2008]
*History of the festival: [http://www.ticketsofrussia.com/white-nights/history.html]
*"Scarlet Sails" celebration: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ3Wv0xscJQ"Scarlet Sails" celebration in St. Petersburg]
*Valery Gergiev [http://www.valerygergiev.com/ Official website]