Celebrate Summer at St. Petersburg's Flower Festival

By The Moscow Times

June 14, 2016

A coat made entirely from flowers at last year's festival.

In St.Petersburg for a few days and looking to enjoy the start of summer with your kids in tow?

You're in luck. The city's beautiful Mikhailovsky Garden is currently hosting its annual summer flower festival — a celebration of all things floral, fun and child-friendly. Through Sunday artists will showcase their creative projects around the park and encourage children to get hands on with interactive artwork and installations.

The theme of this year's flower festival, "Children: The Flowers of the World," inspired many of the artworks. Children can turn wheels to create a waterfall effect in a pond or climb into the center of a giant flower to make a wish with the help of two fairies. Other exhibits include a quaint cottage playhouse and an "Africa" exhibit where little ones can play hide and seek among the giraffes.

Imperial Gardens Russia

Alongside artwork installations, there will be plenty of traditional flowerbeds to feast your eyes on.

Alongside the temporary art projects, the festival will be running a full program of activities for children. Elena Yanishkova, the president of the festival, said that the main goal is to help support the improvement of museums in Petersburg. "All the children in St. Petersburg will want to end up at this festival," she said. The festival is one of the projects of the Sistema Charity Foundation, which has been working with the Russian Museum next door since 2003.

While kids are busy playing, adults can enjoy the peaceful scenery of the park. After exploring the grounds stop by the Russian Museum, home to hundreds of pieces of classical Russian art.

Mikhailovsky Garden. 4 Inzhenernaya Ulitsa. + 7 (812) 347 8721. igardens.ru. Tickets to the festival are 300 rubles for adults and 100 rubles for children. The festival runs through Sunday.

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