Scarlet Sails (celebration of graduates). Scarlet Sails: What ships were decorated for graduation How the sailboat passes Scarlet Sails
IN On the night of June 23-24, the main St. Petersburg summer show - "Scarlet Sails - 2018" will take place.
Scarlet Sails is our main “branded” city holiday in St. Petersburg, a kind of St. Petersburg summer New Year.
The Scarlet Sails holiday was first celebrated in St. Petersburg in 1968 and was celebrated for 10 years until 1979. Then BFL took a break and began to be celebrated again in 2005. It is held on the weekend closest to the longest day of the June white night.
This year the holiday turns 50, which is why all viewers should expect a show that has never happened before. The city authorities assume that about 80 thousand graduates (former schoolchildren) alone will take to the streets and embankments of the city.
The Scarlet Sails festival will begin at 22:00. By tradition, the main venues for the event will be Palace Square and the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. One of the symbols of the holiday of graduates is traditionally, which can always be considered as a transition from school life to adulthood, from the past to the future.
An unusual stage will be built next to the General Staff building. From 20:00 to 22:00, graduates and their guests will gather on Palace Square, and the rest of the audience will gather on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island. This year access to the Palace Bridge will be opened. But it is better to reserve a place there in advance - most likely several hours in advance.
The program will start at 22:00 with a theatrical prologue on Palace Square, and at 22:20 concerts will begin at both venues. The host of the concert has been Ivan Urgant for several years. His colleagues over the years were Yulia Kovalchuk, Yana Churikova, Alexander Gudkov, Alla Mikheeva, Olga Shelest, and in the last two years this honor has been given to the showman by Channel Five journalist Daria Alexandrova. In total, 350 people will perform on stage during the evening.
The headliner of the concert is one of the leaders of the rap movement, the group Basta. In addition, Ukrainian singer Alekseev and Russian rapper ST (Alexander Stepanov), Alsou and Marie Crimebreri, Artyom Pivovarov and Victoria Daineko, My Michelle and Quest Pistols Show will perform on Palace Square.
At 00:40 the public will be treated to a mesmerizing light and pyrotechnic show, the culmination of which will be the appearance of a ship with scarlet sails on the Neva. Under the flash of fireworks, he will sail along the main waterway of the city and remind the public how important it is to believe with all your heart in a beautiful dream. There is no use waiting for him at the Bronze Horseman! It will pass by the Summer Garden and make a turn at the Hermitage. The entire show will take place near the Hermitage. It is useless to stand near the Bronze Horseman.
There will also be a pyrotechnic show on the Trinity Bridge. The organizers have prepared many surprises and technical structures that have no analogues in the world.
00:50 passage of the brigantine “Secret” under scarlet sails.
At 01:10 the audience will be able to return to the stage: the concert program will resume and continue until 04:00.
Entrance to Palace Square will be based on invitation cards, which will be issued to graduates and their parents. Some of the tickets were sent to other cities.
Holiday video
Informal advice:
1. The weather seems good, but it might rain at night. This year the summer is good, but it is always cool near the water. In addition to the jacket, take a windbreaker or a cheap raincoat for 100 rubles. As good as it gets! And it’s convenient to take pictures and hide from the rain and wind. It's always colder near the water! If your girlfriend says FI! Take two, and then you’ll give her your raincoat anyway. Don’t take umbrellas, you’ll break them and gouge out the eyes of others, and you’ll be in the way of beatings.
2. Wear tight, closed shoes. NOT SANDALS! It is impossible to look at your feet in a crowd; there will definitely be broken bottles or other feet in heavy drunken shoes, at a minimum.
3. You will not be allowed into the area where you can dance with your own bottles or any liquid, even in plastic!
4. The metro will operate all night, which is convenient. BUT! Access only by tokens. Bus routes 8, 12, 56, 77, 80, 93, 106, 114, 142 and 154, and trolleybus 37, which run between metro stations and residential areas of “dormitory” areas, will operate all night at 30-minute intervals. The rest of the transport will start working no earlier than 4 am.
5. Don't take up space on the embankment. You stand for a long time, you can’t move away (you’ll lose your place), there’s a crush and you can’t really see anything. It's better to hang out on the roof, on a boat or near the stage. The screen is more visible and beautiful, and fireworks can be seen from everywhere. The best place IMHO is at the stage on Strelka, but even better at home on the couch watching the live broadcast.
6. If you are not alone, take CHARGED mobile phones. It's very easy to get lost! One young man in 2011 I was looking for my elderly mother, whom I brought for the holiday and lost. He made his way through the crowd and shouted in a wild, frightened voice MOM! MOTHER! Help! She won't find her way home! Everyone sympathized with him, but they could not help him. I was even scared for my mother. It's very easy to get lost there. I hope everything is fine with them.
Agree in advance where you will meet if you get lost. If not local, write a note in the children’s pocket with your mobile phone number and hotel address. It's easy to get lost in the crowd, but there are always a LOT of people.
7. Go to the toilet in advance and don't drink beer before. There are toilets there, but the queues will be wild.
8. If you are driving, it wouldn’t hurt to have a regular stool with you on which you can sit and if you need to stand. But if you cross the bridges from the Petrograd side towards the center by car, getting back will be problematic.
9. Once again - dress warmly, take a raincoat, FULLY CHARGE YOUR MOBILE! Check the chargers of those you are traveling with. If available, take a charger.
10. It’s best to watch the show with a boat a day earlier, during the dress rehearsal))) but watch the fireworks in full on the holiday itself)))
11. There are websites selling tickets to the rooftops. Immediately clarify what will be visible from it, otherwise you can pay 3000, and the Neva and the boat will not be visible at all, only fireworks. Local residents may not let you in and the night may end in police custody. As far as I know, officially you can even get onto the roof of the Hermitage (there is an LLC that officially sells tickets) it recently cost 5,000 rubles, but just before the holiday it could be more expensive.
Often you can only buy tickets for Scarlet Sails via the Internet. It's better to do this in advance. The best viewing from a pleasure boat. You can buy tickets
On the night of June 26, the traditional “Scarlet Sails” holiday took place in St. Petersburg, in which more than 30 thousand graduates, 5 thousand guests from various regions of the country took part, and more than 80 thousand spectators watched the action.
Wooden Swedish brig “Tre Kronor” / SAILBOATS INFO In the 11 years since its revival, the alumni holiday has already become one of the summer symbols of the city on the Neva. The main role in it for the sixth time in a row was played by the Swedish brig Tre Kronor of Stockholm.
The first alumni celebration in Leningrad was held in 1968. Then a whole flotilla of “Ships of Labor” passed along the Neva, on which a worker from the Kirov plant, a revolutionary sailor, and a soldier of the Great Patriotic War sailed. And the boats themselves symbolized the idea of building a society based on free labor: on the first ship a huge hammer was depicted, on the second a sickle, on the third an atom.
Since 1970, the holiday has acquired a more romantic connotation from Alexander Green’s story “Scarlet Sails”. The galiot “Secret” was then performed by the schooner “Leningrad”, the fate of which deserves not even an article, but a whole book.
Schooner "Leningrad / Scarlet Sails" / SAILBOATS INFO The future schooner "Leningrad" was built at the Gebroudersya shipyard in Holland in 1912, as the sailing fishing vessel "SN 374", and later - "Sterna". In 1927, the sailing ship was purchased by a new shipowner from Hamburg, who converted it into a universal cargo ship and renamed it Edelgard.
In 1936, the schooner was bought by the hero of the First World War in Germany, Felix Graf von Luckner. He rebuilt the schooner, changing the bow and installing a new one, replacing the old two-stroke two-cylinder engine produced by Deutsche Werke with a power of 70 hp. With. to a 140-horsepower four-stroke engine, and converted it into a comfortable yacht. The schooner received a new name “Seeteufel” - “Sea Devil”. Under this name and under the command of von Luckner, the schooner in 1937-1939 circumnavigated the world along the route: Norway - Panama Canal - Tahiti - Australia - Indonesia - Aden - Suez Canal - Mediterranean Sea - Italy - England. In fact, the ship's crew consisted of scouts and cartographers, and the main purpose of the voyage was to collect information about the ports of a potential enemy before the start of the war. With the outbreak of World War II, the schooner was listed as an auxiliary vessel of the German Navy. After the war, the reparation schooner was transferred to the USSR and for many years served as a sailing training ship for the Navy and the Nakhimov School under the name "Leningrad".
In 2005, after a 26-year break, it was decided to revive the alumni holiday. And until 2010, the galliot “Secret” was played at different times by the historical ship “Standart”, the sailing ship “Mir”, and the schooner “Baltiets”. In 2010, the Swedish sailing ship “Tre Kronor of Stockholm” tried on scarlet sails for the first time.
Brig "Tre Kronor" / SAILBOATS INFO The pride of Sweden
In 1993, the Stockholm Brig project was launched in Stockholm, and the new wooden “sailboat of the world” was based on training brig "Gladan" 1857.
The brig Gladan took part several times in polar expeditions to Spitsbergen and Greenland by the famous polar explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld. Gladan was later used as a training sailing ship by the Swedish Navy. His service ended in 1924, when he sank in the military harbor of Karlskrona.
Masts of the sailing ship “Tre Kronor” / SAILBOATS INFO This ship became an ideal model for creating a sailboat using ancient technology, since detailed drawings were found in military archives.
The keel of Tre Kronor of Stockholm was laid down at the Skeppsholmen shipyard in Stockholm. The ship was built with money from charitable organizations and volunteers - as they now call it a crowdfunding scheme.
On August 27, 2005, the ship was launched, and Princess Victoria became the godmother of the ship. And the “pride of Sweden” set off on its first voyage in 2007.
Technical characteristics of the sailing ship “Tre Kronor of Stockholm”:
| total displacement, t | 330 |
| Max. speed under engine, knots | 8 |
| maximum speed under sail, knots | 17 |
| deck length, m | 35 |
| overall width, m | 8,25 |
| draft, m | 3,25 |
| height of masts from waterline, m | 29,5 |
| sail area, sq.m | 735 |
| number of sails, pcs | 16 |
| full-time crew, people | 8—12 |
| maximum number of people on board, people | 68 |
The main materials for the construction of the vessel were oak, pine, and Siberian larch. About 544 cubic meters were used for the ship's hull. meters of oak, which is about a thousand mature trees. The deck is made of Siberian larch, the masts and yards are made of pine and larch.
Moreover, the vessel was built taking into account all the rules of classification societies. For example, it has 8 waterproof compartments, a modern steering gear, and navigation equipment. To create festive lighting for the vessel, a special diesel generator is used.
The permanent crew of the sailing ship is from 8 to 13 people, the rest are volunteers, cadets or passengers who can freely board the ship on a commercial basis. At the same time, the requirements for them are equal to those for trainees.
All crew members speak fluent English, but the majority of them are Swedes, so Swedish speech can be heard more often, especially when setting the sails.
Speaks Sergey Timoshkov, Coordinating commander of the brig “Tre Kronor” from the Russian side:
Sergey Timoshkov, commander-coordinator of the brig “Tre Kronor” from the Russian side “The holiday consists of several main components: pyrotechnics, music, light show, tens of thousands of spectators on the banks of the Neva - all this together creates a real holiday atmosphere, the culmination of which is the appearance of a sailboat in the span of the Trinity Bridge.
At this time, colossal work is underway on board the ship. Under normal conditions, it takes tens of minutes to perform such seemingly simple maneuvers as passing, turning, and mooring. Our task is to put it all into a few seconds - after all, everything is verified, coordinated with pyrotechnics and music. Last year, for example, we deviated from the script by only 3 seconds. This is certainly the height of professionalism.
Therefore, despite the fact thatTre Kronorcomes to the festival for the sixth year in a row, the crew conducts a huge amount of training.”
Karl Bavner, chief cook of the sailing ship “Tre Kronor” / SAILBOAT INFO Everyone knows that on a ship, the “main person” after the captain is the cook, and the “main place” after the captain’s bridge is the galley. I must admit that tasty and timely prepared food is the key to a good mood for the crew. The ship's cook of the sailing ship "Tre Kronor" Karl (Karl Bavner)- an energetic young man of about 25 years old. He says that one person can easily cope with cooking for a team of 20 people. The watch system on the ship is the same as on Russian sailing ships 4 through 8, so the crew is fed 4-5 times a day. It’s more difficult when a sailboat makes commercial one-day trips, then 50 more passengers are added to the 20 crew members, but Karl doesn’t complain, the work is creative. “I’m cooking, looking out the window, and the sea is splashing overboard, romance,” says Karl, smiling. When the ship is at home in the port, Karl works part-time in one of the local restaurants, but says that on the ship, of course, it is more interesting. 
In response to our questions, Karl asked if there was an establishment in St. Petersburg for sailors where they could go after their watch, relax, and try different drinks. And of course we recommended the famous port tavern to him “Fiddler’s Green” on Rubenstein 5 , a real haven for sailors and people in love with the sea.
Captain of the sailing ship "Tre Kronor" Allan Palmer no less interesting personality. A hereditary sailor, he himself has been sailing on sailing ships for 20 years; he has been involved in the Tre Kronor project from the very beginning. In his free time from maritime activities, Allan is a graphic designer. And his special love is preparing images for postage stamps (you can read more about this Here)
Captain of the brig “Tre Kronor” Allan Palmer / SAILBOAT INFO All St. Petersburg journalists ask Allan the same question about the peculiarities of maneuvering on the Neva. We asked it too. And as the experienced captain assured, the main problem on the Neva is the wind, so it is necessary to coordinate the work of the main engine and sailing equipment, and also make sure that dying fireworks do not fall onto the deck.
But cultural life on board a sailboat is not so developed. For example, what is surprising is that there is no traditional shanti choir. “My father sailed on a sailboat, he had a gorgeous shanti choir on board, but we can’t do it, probably because most of the crew are trainees,” says Allan.
After a short excursion, the captain went about his business to check the sails, parting with his impressions of his sixth visit to “Scarlet Sails”:
“Performing for us is not just work. Because when we arrive, we try to walk around the city a little. St. Petersburg is a very beautiful city. In a way, we, as artists, give a good performance and are happy if everything turned out well and the audience liked it.”
Watching the performance of the Swedish team from the shore, we can say that Allan and his team succeeded brilliantly. Just look at the photo.
Sailboat bell, “uncleaned”. The year is 1687. The origin and authenticity of the bell is unknown. But as the captain said, this is most likely “antique stylization.” They would have scrubbed us anyway.
The bell of the sailing ship “Tre Kronor” / SAILBOATS INFO Real everyday sails of the sailing ship "Tre Kronor".
Real sails "Tre Kronor" / SAILBOATS INFO By the way, this year the scarlet sails that were equipped on all sailing ships taking part in the festival were changed for the first time in 12 years. The old sails were transferred to the Green Museum in Feodosia,
Passenger cabin / SAILBOATS INFO
Sweden is a nation of beer. A special apparatus in the cabins of the sailing ship company.
Sweden - a nation of beer / SAILBOATS INFO 
Most of the sailors on the sailboat “Tre Kronor” are beautiful, brave Swedish girls / SAILBOAT INFO 
“Scarlet Sails” is the calling card of St. Petersburg. Every year, a fabulous show takes place for school graduates, when Dvortsovaya, Trinity Bridge, Palace Bridge, the bank of the Peter and Paul Fortress are decorated with thousands of multi-colored lamps, torches on the Rostral columns light up, and the sounds of favorite melodies flow over the Neva. And a fabulous brig with scarlet sails appears. Tears well up in your eyes, something turns upside down in your soul, and you remember your unfulfilled childhood dreams... The amazing sight leaves no one indifferent.
In 2016, the stage on Palace Square was a huge luminous bridge, symbolizing the transition from past to future, from childhood to adulthood.
Famous artists and musicians congratulated the graduates. The host of the show is Ivan Urgant.
On the day of the holiday, it is almost impossible to get to the embankment and look at the brig with Scarlet Sails.
Guests of St. Petersburg often ask the question: “Where is the best place to watch Scarlet Sails?” If you are staying at a hotel, you can talk to the administration about purchasing an invitation ticket to the Scarlet Sails holiday. You can buy it from hand or on the Internet, but here you need to beware of numerous fakes. It is advisable to arrive early with an invitation card and take a closer seat.
There is a free option for those who do not like large crowds and do not want to take up space for several hours. The day before the performance there is a rehearsal, and you can watch the final run of the sailboat twice, usually at 22-30 and 23-30.
Go to the cafes located on pontoons near the shore and get a wonderful overview of everything that is happening!
If on the day of the Scarlet Sails holiday you walk along Nevsky Prospekt in the hope of seeing a show on the embankment, then the following picture awaits you near the Moika:
You can, of course, listen to the concert standing not far from Palace Square, but the view is depressing...
Having walked along the entire Moika, thousands of people gather on the Champ de Mars to watch the tops of the masts moving between the buildings for 5 seconds.
The official history of the St. Petersburg brand, the Scarlet Sails alumni holiday, goes back 12 years in an updated format - after its revival in 2005. It could soon celebrate its half-century anniversary - if the night extravaganza, created in 1968, had not been closed in 1979 for a long quarter of a century.
The first "sails"
According to the official version, the history of the holiday began in 1968, but in 1979 it ceased to exist. In 2005, the show was revived again and was even included in the register of world event tourism and recommended for visiting in 20 European countries.
Discussions are still ongoing about who invented it and when and why it was closed in the late 1970s. According to one version, the only holiday in the Soviet Union for school graduates, “Scarlet Sails,” appeared in Leningrad in 1968 on the initiative of the city department of public education. The management of the city palace of pioneers named after Zhdanov, in which hardly every Soviet child studied (now the Palace of Youth Creativity), was entrusted with organizing it.
The holiday opened on June 27, 1968, an hour before midnight. The main stage was the Neva water area between the Kirovsky and Palace bridges. The holiday began with a light show to the famous “Hymn to the Great City” by Reinhold Gliere.
“This holiday is dedicated to you, boys and girls, young citizens of our city! Today you were awarded your matriculation certificate!.. This is an unforgettable day! So let this evening be remembered forever!” - said the announcer.
Then a production was proposed in the spirit of Soviet theatrical performances: “workers of the Putilov plant”, revolutionary sailors, and soldiers walked through. At the parade of ships, living pictures were presented: on the first ship there was an imitation of a factory with workshops, machines and workers. On the second there is a sickle with field workers and machine operators. The third was the ship "Atom" with young scientists. Thus, young people were offered the traditional Soviet choice: become a worker, a peasant, or join the intelligentsia. The ships were accompanied by Suvorov and Nakhimov soldiers.
The main ship was the Leningrad boat, on which the flag of the holiday was raised, and then several dozen young people lit torches, which passed the fire along the chain to the Rostral columns. Volleys of mounted fireworks were fired from the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress from Strelka. Then the three-masted Secret entered the Neva under scarlet sails. Alexander Greene's heroes were on board.
The celebration, according to official sources, lasted until 4-5 am; the performance was attended by more than 25 thousand graduates. From this day on, the celebration of “Scarlet Sails” in this format became traditional and was celebrated until 1979, until the head of the Leningrad regional committee of the CPSU Grigory Romanov closed it.
However, there is another version of the birth of the holiday. Some media claim that the first Scarlet Sails holiday took place a decade earlier - in 1958. The first hosts of the holiday were a student of the Institute of Culture Larisa Kuprina and a cadet from LVIMU named after. Admiral S.O. Makarova (“Makarovka”) Yuri Kozlov, who allegedly came up with the name of the holiday. The official part took place in the theater. Lenin Komsomol, then everyone moved to the embankment. A few years later the holiday was closed, and in 1968 it was revived again.
Why and who didn’t like “Scarlet Sails”
There are several versions: according to one of them, the holiday was closed due to the fact that tipsy graduates started clashes with each other, and the police could not cope. According to another version, at the last holiday in the 1970s, several graduates decided to jump over the opening spans of the bridge as a bet and died by falling into the Neva. There is a third version: the Leningrad brand was ordered to be closed “from above” so that the second capital would not block the glory of the first, that is, Moscow.
One way or another, in 1979, “Scarlet Sails” ceased to exist. Several generations of Leningrad graduates celebrated day and night farewell to school and childhood on the same Neva, but unofficially. We hired boats, walked along the embankments, drank champagne on the Champs of Mars and sang songs on Nevsky at night. The holiday was revived only 26 years later, in 2005.
Why are the sails Swedish?
For four years, the Russian frigate “Standart” sailed into the Neva under scarlet sails. However, in 2010, its place was taken by the Swedish sailing ship Tre Kronor. The then “cultured” vice-governor of St. Petersburg, Alla Manilova, explained the replacement of the domestic sailing ship with a foreign one by the fact that the Shtandart did not have permission to move in the internal waters of Russia and in previous years it was released on the Scarlet Sails as an exception. In 2009, according to officials, the Shtandart captain allegedly again failed to complete the paperwork and did not even begin to negotiate with Smolny.
“The decision to find a new sailboat was the result of protracted and unsuccessful negotiations with the captain of the Shtandart, Vladimir Martus,” Manilova emphasized.
Captain Vladimir Martus himself is offended and believes that the replacement of his ship with a foreign one is the result of bureaucratic laziness and internal squabbles.
“Naturally, I myself have a very bad attitude towards the participation of a foreign ship in a Russian holiday. But I can assure you that for my part I made every effort to ensure that “Standard” participated in “Scarlet Sails”. Now the strength to fight the bureaucracy has dried up. I see this as commerce and work for the picture - well, what can we do, maybe this is the fate of our city now,” Martus said in an interview with RIA Novosti in 2013.
According to him, he has not been able to return to Russia for 4 years due to problems with the law. The fact is that for wooden and sailing ships in Russia there is no base for technical supervision and control, and therefore the ship can remain laid up forever.
“There is only apathy on the part of officials. There are no historical courts - well, no and no. Apparently this suits them. To turn the situation around, it is almost necessary to make changes to the Merchant Shipping Code. That is, this is serious work at the State Duma level, for which I personally do not have the resources. The Swedish ship is doing well; Swedish laws apply to it. If the “Standard” was transferred to the flag of another state, then we could also enter St. Petersburg according to Swedish or Dutch rules, but Peter’s frigate under the Swedish flag... It’s difficult and painful for me to imagine such a picture. Especially when I know that all the problems are due to the fact that officials are too lazy to work a little,” said Vladimir Martus.
Note that over all the years of the festival’s existence, the role of Green’s “Secret” was performed by several ships. First there was the schooner "Leningrad" (German captured schooner "Der Seeteufel"). In 2008, the three-masted training ship Mir, built at the Gdansk shipyard in 1987, sailed along the Neva. Then there was the “Standart” and in recent years the Swedish “Three Crowns”.
Anthem of Assol and Gray
Isaac Dunaevsky's overture to the film “The Children of Captain Grant” has already become an anthem and musical symbol of the holiday. In 2010 and 2011, the musical score was based on the works of the outstanding composer Eduard Artemyev, who personally participated in the preparation of the musical material, and in 2012 - the classics Sergei Prokofiev, Isaac Dunaevsky, as well as the popular Russian artist and composer Dmitry Malikov, who performed the suite accompanied by the Baltic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Konstantin Orbelyan.
Why do they scold
For tons of garbage that even significantly strengthened teams of janitors cannot remove. For drunken youth, and, according to the police, everyone gets drunk - both the graduates themselves and the guests.
The city government received a lot of punishment for the lack of bins and toilets, for the non-working metro, the profanation of checks and “metal detectors” through which young people calmly brought strong drinks and firecrackers onto Dvortsovaya.
The situation was not corrected immediately - the least negative reviews about the chaos at the festival were received in 2011. For the last two years, the metro has also been open on this night without closing, which certainly helps the guests of the holiday a lot.
"Scarlet Sails-2016"
The head of the organizing committee of the holiday, Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Kirillov, said that in 2016 the entrance to Palace Embankment and Palace Square will be open only to 80 thousand school graduates (of which about 700 are graduates of cadet schools, as well as graduates from 19 regions and 3 foreign countries).
About 30 specialized vessels will ensure the safety of the water area between the Troitsky and Palace bridges and the so-called “buffer” zones, preventing dangerous maneuvers in the area where pyrotechnics are placed.
To avoid counterfeiting, invitation cards, in addition to other degrees of protection, are equipped with special perforation. Their free distribution will begin only on the eve of the event itself. However, it has already appeared that on the “black market” you can buy a ticket to Palace Square for 1-3 thousand rubles.
5 thousand people take part in organizing the event, 2 thousand of whom are law enforcement officers. About 30 specialized vessels will ensure the safety of the water area between the Troitsky and Palace bridges and the so-called “buffer” zones, preventing dangerous maneuvers in the area where pyrotechnics are placed. Almost one and a half thousand toilets will be installed in the city center, and 135 special cleaning machines will ensure quick cleanliness after the holiday. They promise security screening as at the most serious airport. It is prohibited to bring food and drinks with you.
Guests will be entertained by musical groups included in the top 20 preferences of St. Petersburg youth. Among them are “Beasts”, “Night Snipers”, “Spleen”, Iowa, Mot and Bianca. For the 12th time in a row, the host will be St. Petersburg resident Ivan Urgant. His partner is Channel Five presenter Dasha Alexandrova.
Conductor Sergei Zhilin will conduct the combined St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra from Moscow in teleconference mode thanks to a large screen installed on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island. Diana Arbenina, Maria Maksakova, Ivan Ozhogin, father and son Presnyakov will take part in the pyrotechnic musical.
During the performance, viewers will see 20 laser paintings and 50 unique pyrotechnic explosions.
The culmination of the holiday will be the appearance of the brig under scarlet sails in the span of the Trinity Bridge. To show the show from the most advantageous angles, Channel Five cameras will be installed on the roof of the Hermitage, on the balustrade of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the observation deck of the St. Petersburg TV tower, the masts and deck of the sailing ship Tre Kronor.
The metro in the Northern capital will operate all night.
Photo by Denis Tarasov.
St. Petersburg, the Scarlet Sails holiday is an all-Russian ball for high school graduates, held in the city of St. Petersburg on the Saturday closest to the shortest white night. Usually this is the end of June: from 19 to 25).
"Scarlet Sails" graduates' celebration is held in two stages. At the first stage, a large concert is organized on the spit of Vasilievsky Island and Palace Square using elements of a theatrical performance. The second stage is the holding of a grandiose multimedia light and pyrotechnic show in the waters of the Neva. Admission is free everywhere.
The night show is a unique performance on the water. And the passage of a ship with scarlet sails along the embankments is the main event of the show. The ceremonial movement of the ship on the water is accompanied by a water performance, fireworks and a specially prepared light show. Also, the entire performance is completely synchronized with the music. In general, the duration of this water performance is about 30 minutes.
Every year, about 3.5 million people watch the performance in real mode. Also, with the distribution of the signal to the whole world, a live television broadcast is conducted on Federal Channel Five. The holiday is held with the personal participation of the governor and the all-Russian support of the Government of St. Petersburg.
In 1968, the only holiday in the Soviet Union for graduates called “Scarlet Sails” took place in Leningrad for the first time. The Palace of Youth Creativity (now), and previously on Nevsky Prospect. The City Palace of Pioneers is considered the place of his birth. It was there that the beginning of a bright and large-scale event was laid on the initiative of the city department of public education of Leningrad.
The grand opening of the holiday took place in the evening, at eleven o'clock, on June 27, 1968. Its opening theatrical part was shown on the water. A wide section of the river opposite the Peter and Paul Fortress - the Neva water area between the Dvortsov and Kirov bridges - became the stage. And the entire Palace Embankment, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island and two huge bridges became places for spectators.
A chain of powerful floodlight installations was stretched along the embankment. The entire space above the river was pierced by their colored rays. The holiday was opened by a squadron of boats, on which were all generations of Soviet people: soldiers of the Bolshevik armored division, sailors of the revolutionary Baltic, young workers of the days of October and many others. The very first ship featured a huge “hammer”. And the second was the “sickle” ship. And the ship “Atom” was heading towards us.
Young drummers and fanfare players, dressed in the bright ceremonial uniform of the Nakhimov and Suvorov schools, positioned themselves along the sides of all the boats as an honorary escort. All night long a colorful, bewitching, grandiose performance took place on the Neva River. This show was attended by about 30 thousand graduates.
It was from this day that the holiday of graduates “Scarlet Sails” became traditional and was celebrated until 1979. But fearing a large crowd of young people, Grigory Romanov, head of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU, closed this holiday. And since then it has become unofficial. And its renewal took place only in 2005.
Today, the Scarlet Sails holiday is a large multimedia performance held in St. Petersburg on the brightest of white nights in the waters of the Neva River, in which all the latest multimedia technologies are used. The main event of the show is the passage of a dream ship with scarlet sails along the embankments, symbolizing in turn a bright future, the fulfillment of desires and giving hope.
The working area of the water area is about 2 kilometers.
About the symbol of scarlet sails!
A sailboat with unusual scarlet sails is considered to be the main symbol of the holiday.
The brig “Tre Kronor” has been a symbol of “Scarlet Sails” in recent years. It is a modern copy of the brig Gladan, which was built in 1857. The current ship was built with the help of volunteers from around the world and charitable organizations, and therefore it is also called the Peace Sailboat.
The ceremonial launching of the vessel took place in 2007 in August. The vessel has unique technical characteristics: it has a double straight mast rig, has good maneuverability and has sufficient overall dimensions (its length is 46 meters).
In previous years, the symbols of “Scarlet Sails” were various ships. So in Leningrad, in 1968, it was a squadron of boats on which costumed representatives of different generations were located. In 1970, the role of the symbol of “Scarlet Sails” was played by the German captured schooner “Leningrad”, which belonged to Count von Luckner (the main German corsair of the First World War).
In 2005, the symbol became the “Frigate”, which is the first ship of the Baltic Fleet, which was restored in 1994. In 2008, the three-masted fast sailing ship Mir raised Scarlet Sails on the Neva. In 2009, the main role was played by the schooner “Young Baltic”. And since 2010, the symbol of the Scarlet Sails has been the brig “Tre Kronor”.
