The Scarlet Sails festival in Mariupol brought together over a hundred graduates

The "Scarlet Sails" holiday in Mariupol brought together over a hundred former schoolchildren. The culmination of the event was the passage of the snow-white yacht Assol under scarlet sails as a symbol of a bright future. Izvestia correspondent Mary Badunts told about the holiday.

According to tradition, the "Scarlet Sails" began with a concert at the city pier. The leading "Scarlet Sails" theater and film actress Lyanka Gryu in Mariupol admitted that she had never seen such energy anywhere.

"Mariupol is certainly being reborn like a phoenix from the ashes. Amazing kids, amazing people. I was walking around the city today, talking to the guys. These are the people who will stay here and will develop and revive the city, filling it with a truly valuable attitude towards each other," said Lyanka Gryu.

This year, the organizers have brought more equipment. The show was made even brighter, louder and more impressive. The Yin-Yang group became a gift to the graduates, the musicians were the headliners of the concert. Your favorite artists are just around the corner.

"Their eyes literally and figuratively reflect the sea. We have never had such a graduation," said Artyom Ivanov, the lead singer of the Yin—Yang group.

The show of the artists of the New Russian Circus made the graduates think about the endless possibilities.

"School is ending, childhood is ending, this time is ending, and it's time to move into a new quality, into adulthood, and it's always exciting for them, at such moments you always want to support them," said Anatoly Okulov, an artist at the Moscow Nikulina Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.

The Scarlet Sails festival is held only in two Russian cities. In 2022, for the first time, memorable sails appeared in front of graduates of the region. This was made possible by Channel Five, ROSSIYA Joint-Stock Bank and the Foundation for Assistance to Children of Donbass.

"This year we have brought even more heads of dynamic light. <...> The richer, brighter entrance group of the Assol boat. We also brought more than twenty pieces of sparklers — these are cold pyrotechnics," said Alexander Milyavsky, Technical Director of the Scarlet Sails project.

Many of the graduates will stay to study in their native Mariupol. Now it is one of the most promising and developing cities in Russia.

"I want to become an architect. I want to enroll in a vocational school in Mariupol, study and rebuild our hometown," said graduate Maria Lebedeva.

Dozens of engineers, lighting designers, sound engineers, production designers, and yachtsmen worked to make the Scarlet Sails rise above the Sea of Azov. The Assol is the largest and most recognizable yacht in Mariupol. It takes only a few minutes to pass it in front of yesterday's students. But for thousands of graduates, these are not just scarlet sails — they are a symbol of rebirth, hope, peace and a cloudless future.

Police and Rosgvardiya officers kept order at the celebration. There were fears that it would not be possible to realize everything planned: the weather these days was constantly showing character. But thanks to careful preparation and repeated rehearsals, everything went as planned.

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The day before, the graduates talked about the festive atmosphere at the Scarlet Sails in Mariupol. Chervonya Oglu, a graduate, also shared that he would like to get an engineering degree to help rebuild the city, or become a programmer, because he likes this field more.