White Nights Festival

Ever wondered how it would be if evenafter the sunsets the sky is bright and the street lights are not required. This isan annual phenomenon in St. Petersburg, the northern most city in the world. In fact this is known as ‘White Nights’. The day is almost 19 hours long and the longest
white night falls on June 21/22. This occurs due to the northerly geographical location of St. Petersburg, at 59 degrees 57’north which is roughly on the same latitude as Oslo, Norway, the Southern tip of Greenland. St. Petersburg is supposed to be the world’s most northern city where the sun’s rays do not descend below the horizon enough for the sky to glow dark. So it never becomes dark in the night which makes it difficult to distinguish between and day and night.
The whole city celebrates these few days when darkness does not seem to take over the skies. People stay awake all through the night enjoying the events being held in the city. One finds a lot of romantic couples strolling by the river Neva. White Nights is not unique to St. Petersburg, other cities in Russia also experience this from May to Mid-July.
But St Petersburg being the artistic capital of Russia celebrates White Nights through a series of cultural events which takes place all over the city. Musical concerts, ballet performances, opera are held in every part of the city. Dance clubs and beach clubs remain open till 6 am in the morning during White Nights. The ‘Scarlet Sails’ which is tradition that marks the end of the school life takes place sometime in June. This custom is inspired from the book of the same title
written by Alexander Grins. Thus school students come together to celebrate the end of an academic year. Scarlet sails as the name suggests consists of tens of boats full of pirates in the waters of the river Neva, fireworks adorn the sky as these boats cross the river. This tradition began after World War II and still goes on.
The night view of River Neva is one of the best photo spots during this time. The drawbridges of the river Neva rise between 1:30am and 5am to let big ships pass. The south bank of the river
Neva offers the best view of the bridge.
‘Stars of the white nights’ are held annually at the Mariinsky Theatre this is the main highlight of the White Nights festival. This was originally started by the first mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak. Tickets to these festivals get sold out months before the date of performances.
The Palace Square is the central part of the city, it connects the Palace Bridge leading to Vasilievesky island. This place attracts a lot of international musicians who perform during the white nights festival. More than 50 thousand fans gather to witness these events. The recent stars who performed here were Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Scorpions and other stars. A lot of film festivals are held during this time. White Nights festival has added to cultural and literary spirit of the city, all the people of St. Petersburg look forward to this festival after tolerating extreme winters throughout the year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARgiagY0d6k