The White Nights in the northern city

No one knows how to celebrate like the Russians.   Every year, St. Petersburg holds the White Nights Festival, an annual celebration of arts during the season of white nights, comprising of classical ballet, opera, theater and musical  performances by Russian stars and international guests.


The White Nights season begins on May 27, the day on which St. Petersburg celebrates its birthday. 

As St. Petersburg celebrates its 307th anniversary, an elephant balances on a stool in the middle of the Nevsky Prospekt.  

Photo by Alexander Belenky for the St. Petersburg Times

May 27, 1703 is said to be the date on which Peter the Great laid the first foundation stone of the Peter and Paul Fortress, thus founding the new city in honor of St. Peter.  In 1712, St. Petersburg became the capital of the Russian Empire.  In 1918, the capital was reverted back to Moscow a year after the October Revolution.

Photo by Steven Miller








This year, the City Day celebrations lasted for four days, honoring two great citizens of the city: Anatoly Sobchak, first mayor of St. Petersburg, and Ludwig Fadyeyev, theoretical physicist and mathematician working in the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The celebrations were also marked by unveiling of a bust to a prominent polar researcher, Artur Chilingarov, who was awarded the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of the Russian Federation for a successful recue expedition in the Antarctic undertaken in 1985 to free the research ship the Mikhail Somov from its ice-bound location and for heroism in extreme conditions during an Arctic expedition on the Academic Fyordorov ship in 2008.  

 Mr. Chilingarov is one of just four Russians to bear the title of national hero twice.  He was also awarded with Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, Order of the Badge of Honor, and many medals. He is and the author of more than 50 scientific publications.

According to tradition, the Stars of the White Nights Music Festival opened in the city, with a fireworks display at the Peter and Paul Fortress. 

Four-day festivities included opera and ballet performances, theater and musical marathons, the arts and handicraft fair, ice-cream festival, Parisian stand with actors and prizes, international sailing regatta, water polo tournament, urban orienteering, roller-skate races, international wheelchair basketball tournament, and two open air concert at the Palace Square.

The White Nights festival will continue through July, when it will be closed with the Scarlet Sails celebration, marking the end of schools and colleges for local students

Photo by Alyson Fieldman