The holiday "Scarlet Sails — 2025" became the winner of the TEFI — 2026 Award

The Fifth Channel's project "Scarlet Sails — 2025" was awarded the main national television award TEFI in the Entertainment Broadcasting category on June 8. The award ceremony took place in Moscow.

The broadcast of the alumni celebration received an award in the "Broadcast of a cultural event" nomination. In 2025, the legendary graduation was seen by 45.7 million people worldwide, including the Internet and international reach. This is the highest figure in the entire history of the project.

The live broadcast of the entire holiday on Channel Five set four records at once – in the audiences of "All 25-59", "All 18+", "All 4+" and "Women 25-59".

The water and pyrotechnic show was also broadcast by other federal channels: almost one in three viewers over the age of 18 watched it. The combined share of the broadcast on the four channels was 31.8%.

The online broadcast on the Internet attracted 13.7 million people. Another 300,000 watched the graduation live on large street screens in major cities.

Mobile television stations and specialized filming equipment complexes were installed in the Winter Palace area to organize the broadcast on the Palace Embankment. They provided a signal from the concert venue and the Neva River. More than 60 pieces of filming equipment, including cameras and camera cranes, were involved. The shooting was carried out from specialized car towers with a height of 30 to 50 m and from the upper points of buildings such as St. Isaac's Cathedral, the TV tower, the Kunstkamera, the Hermitage, the Stock Exchange.

Modern wireless signal transmission systems were used to display the moving objects of the water and pyrotechnic show - the Brig Rossiya and escort boats. As part of the technical support for the broadcast, a separate project was implemented to create a fiber-optic network in the Neva River, which ensured high-quality and stable video transmission.

"The cameras were installed not only directly on the site of the Scarlet Sails festival. They offered unique views of the city from above, panoramas, and unexpected angles. This allowed viewers to enjoy the picturesque historical buildings and monuments not only from ground points. St. Petersburg has a unique architecture with strict lines and elegant facades. Therefore, it was important for us to convey all the beauty and harmony of the Northern Capital at its best, the atmosphere of celebration, and also to emphasize the scale of the event," said Konstantin Osutin, technical director of the television broadcast.

For the first time, the Leningrad graduation ball was held in 1968, but 11 years later the beautiful annual tradition was interrupted. The holiday was revived in 2005 on the initiative of ROSSIYA Joint Stock Bank, the Government of St. Petersburg and Channel Five. Channel Five has been the organizer of the water pyrotechnic show for several years in a row. Since 2005, he has been continuously providing live television coverage of the legendary graduation.

Going ashore: graduates met the brig Rossiya and heard the Katyusha volleys

The grandiose celebration "Scarlet Sails" in St. Petersburg was dedicated to the theme of victory

The concert part of the alumni celebration "Scarlet Sails — 2025" on May 29 also received the silver award of one of the key creative awards of Russia "Silver Mercury" in the nomination "Best Mass event". The jury highly appreciated the quality of the organization of the event, the reach of the audience, the effectiveness of interaction with it and the constant growth of brand awareness.

In 2025, the graduation celebration was held on the night of June 29. The holiday was revived after a long-term hiatus in 2005 on the initiative of ROSSIYA Joint Stock Bank, the government of St. Petersburg and Channel Five.