The train to the future and the ship of dreams will be shown at the "Scarlet Sails – 2026"

The installation of the Scarlet Sails alumni celebration stage is being completed on Palace Square. On the evening of June 27, it will once again surprise with its image and scope and turn into a space where dreams are born. The central image of the set design will be the portal, a collective symbol of the station, port, pier and platform, representing the starting point of the journey to the dream.

"A stage complex construction site has been set up on the Palace Square. Everything looks like a real building construction site: installers, special equipment, cranes, manipulators are working. The visual lightness and beauty of the stage's architecture have a complex engineering foundation. First of all, the stage is a technological structure where everything is thought out to the smallest detail: power structures, mechanisms, equipment, screen surfaces and decorative elements are all integrated into a single engineering project," said Alexey Bulgakov, technical director of the concert part of the festival.

The building area has almost doubled compared to last year. The height of the individual elements exceeds 30 m. The complex-shaped screen surfaces cover more than 1 thousand square meters. m.: radius, sliding and perspective screens will form a living environment and change it in real time. One of the screens, installed at a height of 22 m, is made in the shape of a sail. The color scheme is designed in cool tones, referring to the water element.

"Traditionally, the image of a ship is always present in the set design as the main symbol of the holiday. This year we are using a decoration that resembles the funnel of a steamship. A separate element includes the outlines of a mast and a lighthouse," said Nikolai Orlov, the production designer of the concert part of the holiday.

As part of the celebration, the "train of the future" with passengers will arrive on the platform. Its length is 15 m. To move the structure from Moscow to St. Petersburg, it was disassembled into 16 parts, after which it was reassembled and tested on the Palace Square for five days. The presenters will have their own transport this year.

"The pairs of presenters will move along the podium, as if sailing on a paper boat. This is a special mobile radio—controlled platform — without wires and rails," Bulgakov said.

In the final, the symbolic dream ship will be born in front of graduates at the shipyard. He will appear from a child's drawing, begin to grow, and then set off on a great voyage — to a place where everyone has their own story, their own path, and their own dream.

The Scarlet Sails 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.

"Scarlet Sails" – 2026: date, what time is the start and what will surprise the organizers

In 2026, the festive event is scheduled for June 27.

As part of the celebration this year, for the first time, the presenters themselves will become part of a musical and theatrical performance and will sing. Together with them, the whole country will hear the voices of the TRITIA group, Julia Peresild and the MANDRAGORA group. Filatov and Karas, Alex Lim, Alyona Sviridova, Lucy Chebotina, Yelka, Tatiana Kurtukova will rock the Palace. The participants of the national casting will take the stage in front of the stars. This is also a tradition, with half a thousand applications submitted in 2026. Dancers, singers, presenters, musicians — the jury looked at a hundred numbers a day, it was not easy to make a choice.

During the "Scarlet Sails – 2026", a "City of Dreamers" will be built on the Palace Square. The guests will enjoy not just a musical show, but a multi-layered artistic story about choosing a path, inner strength and the future that everyone creates with their own hands. In the center of the plot of the concert "Scarlet Sails – 2026" is a man and his dream. The directors will propose to look at the dream not as an abstract desire, but as a living process that begins in childhood and runs through the entire life path.