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SPIEF 2017 participants can look forward to rich cultural and sports programme

As per tradition, part of these cultural and sports events will be held to support charity

The press centre of Rossiya Segodnya international information agency hosted a press conference on May 22, 2017 to announce the cultural and sporting programme of the upcoming St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The event was attended by Russian State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Culture Alexander Zhuravsky, Deputy Minister of Sport Marina Tomilova, Artistic Director, Conductor and Soloist of the Soloists of Moscow chamber ensemble Yuri Bashmet, three-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling Alexander Karelin, Roscongress Foundation Deputy Director and Head of the Sports, Entertainment and Special Programmes Directorate Georgy Bryusov, and Head of the Roscongress Foundation Cultural Programme Directorate Elena Mezentseva.

As per tradition, part of these cultural and sports events will be held to support charity. On May 31 in particular, a gala concert will take place at the Mikhailovsky Theatre as part of the Year Against Melanoma. The concert will feature some of ballet’s best-known international stars, including Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Denis Rodkin, Irina Perren, and Marat Shemiunov.

A welcome cocktail reception given by the Chairman of the SPIEF 2017 Organizing Committee will take place on the same day. Guests at the evening reception will include Russian and international government officials, some of the Forum’s key speakers and moderators, and the heads of major corporations. The programme includes performances of pop and jazz numbers by vocal and instrumental groups.

On May 31, Peterhof’s Torgovy Square will host the official opening ceremony for the light and music fountain. In addition, participants will be able to visit Alexander Park and Catherine Park in Tsarskoye Selo throughout the Forum, and on June 1 to visit the courtyards of the Russian Museum.

The schedule for June 1 also includes a performance by Yuri Bashmet and the All-Russian Youth Symphony Orchestra in the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall.

A gala event for SPIEF 2017 guests and participants given by the Governor of St. Petersburg will be held on June 2 at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall. This event will include the opening ceremony for an exhibition of works by sculptor and artist Dashi Namdakov. The exhibition will remain open to guests and residents of St. Petersburg from June 7 until the end of the month.

On June 3, the Peterburg.Live music festival, dedicated this year to the 55th anniversary of Viktor Tsoi’s birth, will take place on Palace Square for Forum guests and participants as well as St. Petersburg residents. The popular rock groups appearing at the festival will include Piknik, Pilot, Kukryniksy, Severny Flot, Brigadniy Podryad, and The Hatters, who will be performing some of the best-known numbers from the late star’s group Kino.

The Alexandrinsky Theatre will be the venue for a concert by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (laVerdi). The concert programme will include works by Tchaikovsky, Respighi, and Brahms.

The SPIEF 2017 sports programme will kick off on May 31 with a football match held as part of the Russia-wide charitable campaign ‘Under the Flag of Kindness!’ On the same day, Forum participants are invited to take part in a gala hockey match. “The Roscongress Foundation offers SPIEF participants a wide range of networking formats beyond the scheduled discussions and plenary sessions. This provides Forum delegates with an opportunity to get to know and understand one another better, and to conclude more agreements as a result”, noted three-time Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling champion and State Duma deputy Alexander Karelin.

One of the biggest draws of the SPIEF 2017 sports programme is set to be the ‘VTB Arena Open: Showdown between the Two Capitals’ gala basketball match, in which the St. Petersburg and Moscow teams will fight it out for the Roscongress Cup. Some of Russia’s best-known politicians, business leaders, artists, and sports stars will be taking to the basketball court on June 1. “The hockey and basketball gala matches will be held at a high international standard. The Forum will be a place of trust, where major businesses and all parties involved will be able to see the long-term cooperation programmes that have been set up with international sporting institutions. It is the support of major Russian and international businesses, in combination with support from the government, which will enable us to implement the top-level sporting projects that Russia has planned”, said Deputy Director of the Roscongress Foundation Georgy Bryusov. 

On May 31, the sixth international mini-football tournament for St. Petersburg consular missions and people’s diplomacy representatives will take place at Dubki Park in Sestroretsk. The event programme will include sports contests for participants and spectators, an equestrian show, and a concert programme. Taking place simultaneously on Yelagin Island will be the Forum’s traditional White Nights tennis tournament for the Roscongress Cup. The Yelagin Island Tennis Club will also host the chess and billiards tournaments.

The Roscongress Cup will take place on June 3 at the Alexeyev Sports Centre, and will be the first tournament to be held at St. Petersburg’s first full-size golf course at the Peterhof Golf Club, which is set to open in the same month. Tournament participants will thus have a unique opportunity to be the first to judge the 18-hole course in Russia’s northern capital, with its contrasting landscapes and urban views. The Peterhof Golf Club is located within Peterhof itself, next to Alexandria Park and Mikhailovka, the former summer residence of royalty.

The largest of all the events on the sports programme will be the 2nd St. Petersburg Corporate Games. On June 3, approximately 1,000 government staff and private-sector employees from St. Petersburg, Leningrad Region, and other regions of the Russian Federation will compete in 15 disciplines at the Alexeyev Sports Centre. “An important topic for the Ministry of Sport is developing and creating the necessary conditions to allow the working population to be able to participate in sport. Our task is to use any means available to increase the popularity of sport, and the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is of great interest to us as a platform. Participants in the sports programme will include top leaders. It is very important for the development of sport that these leaders take a positive view of it and understand its importance for corporate culture”, emphasized Deputy Minister of Sport Marina Tomilova.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will take place from June 1 to 3, 2017 under the theme ‘Achieving a New Balance in the Global Economic Arena’.

More detailed information can be found at www.forumspb.com