The alumni celebration "Scarlet Sails — 2026" was held in St. Petersburg

On June 27, St. Petersburg hosted the alumni festival "Scarlet Sails — 2026". Tens of thousands of graduates from the Northern Capital, the Leningrad Region and other regions of Russia have taken their first step into adulthood here.

Over 500 graduates from the settlements of the Donetsk People's Republic, including from the twin city of the Northern capital, Mariupol, received the status of honorary guests of the celebration. Representatives of delegations from China, Cuba, Republika Srpska and the States of the African continent were also present.

The central theme of the evening was "The City of Dreamers". The concert was launched by the musical composition "Catching our Summer", which was jointly presented by Anton Lavrentiev, the choral group HOR and the creative troupe of the Leningrad Center show space. In addition, at the beginning of the event, the graduates were welcomed by the governor of the city, Alexander Beglov.

"The young Peter I had a great dream. He wanted to build a great city on this place. His dream has come true! Russia is a land of opportunity. Dream, create! Russia believes in you!" he said.

For the first time since the Scarlet Sails, the concert program was accompanied by a whole team of presenters: Nika Zdorik, Sergey Gorodnichy, Julianna Karaulova, Vyacheslav Makarov and Daria Alexandrova. In addition, for the first time in the history of the holiday, they not only led the event, but also performed songs themselves.

Each part of the musical program symbolized the movement towards the goal, and the thematic blocks received motivating names: "Dream and do it. You can do it", "A place to step forward", "It will be difficult, but you will win. We are together", "The unity of the peoples of a large country. My native country is wide", "Love conquers everything. The dream is calling, "and "Everything will work out. Forward to the dream."

Popular performers and bands performed in front of the guests of the festival: Tatiana Kurtukova, Julianna Karaulova, Lucy Chebotina, Alex Lim, Alyona Sviridova, Grigory Miroshnichenko, Filatov & Karas project, TRITIA group, Julia Peresild and the MANDRAGORA collective, as well as Pavel Rudenko and Vanya Dmitrienko.

The headliner this year was singer Yelka (real name is Elizaveta Ivantsiv).

The Scarlet Sails holiday was revived in 2005 after a long-term hiatus on the initiative of ROSSIYA Joint Stock Bank, the Government of St. Petersburg and Channel Five.

The graduation celebration ended in St. Petersburg on the night of June 28 with a colorful fireworks display. The concert on the Palace Square was held against the backdrop of the large-scale scenery of the "City of Dreamers". A stage platform was built especially for the event, including a train station, a shipyard, a 30-meter lighthouse structure and over 1 thousand square meters of multimedia screens.

Delegations of foreign graduates have arrived in St. Petersburg for the alumni festival "Scarlet Sails — 2026". They took national flags with them, adding a special atmosphere to the holiday. Later, the guests of the city performed round dances to the song "Mother Earth". The teenagers sang along to their favorite song with smiles and captured the highlights on their mobile phone cameras.

Maya Blanche, a schoolgirl from Paris, shared at the same time that "Scarlet Sails" should be seen with her own eyes, impressions of it cannot be fully conveyed in words. The girl admitted that attending the event was her long-time dream. She learned about the existence of this famous holiday long before her trip to Russia from her grandmother, who lives in St. Petersburg and tries not to miss the event.