MOSCOW, July 25 – RIA Novosti. The second international fireworks festival "Rostec" ended in Moscow. Over the course of two days, eight of the best teams of pyrotechnicians from around the world amazed spectators with their art and technical prowess, and a jury selected the best among them.
“The event is unique. This is the first time a festival of this kind has been held, since since last year we have completely changed the format for any fireworks festival. We have turned it from a simple evening celebration into a large family festival full day", executive producer of the Rostec festival Kirill Kosenko told RIA Novosti.
According to him, similar festivals all over the world consist only of an evening pyrotechnic show. “We decided to go further and turn this not just into a spectacle, but into a big daytime celebration,” Kosenko explained.
As the executive producer said, on the first day of the festival alone, about 300 thousand people were able to enjoy the spectacular show. “Yesterday we were visited by about a hundred thousand, just here, on the territory of the park. In the district, in the whole region, there were about two hundred thousand more on all sides of the river,” Kosenko explained.
Festival in Brateevsky Park
For the first time, the fireworks festival was held in Brateevsky Cascade Park, where seven thematic entertainment venues, various master classes and sections were located as part of the day program. In addition, a “flower ship” cruised throughout the park all day - a festive carnival show, where a platform decorated with flowers in the form of a ship with artists on board drove around the park, leaving a trail of confetti in its wake.
“I generally consider this place to be unique: there is a straight long embankment and a wonderful slope. Yesterday people were wonderfully located on all the slopes, put down blankets, looked and everyone was clearly visible and very comfortable,” Kosenko noted.
“We plan to use this place more than once and for more than one year, maybe even be based here,” the producer added.
© Ruptly A grand fireworks show at the Rostec festival in Moscow. Drone photography
Participants and winners
In total, eight teams participated in the festival: representatives of Russia, Kazakhstan, Malta, Portugal, Azerbaijan, China, France and Estonia. Each team was given only 9 minutes to prove their skills and surprise the audience with a colorful program.
"It's great that teams from different countries, and this, among other things, is an exchange of experience. These are different European countries that show their equipment, their art, and these are very famous teams in the world, so it’s very cool to communicate with them,” Michael Weber, captain of the French pyrotechnics team, told RIA Novosti.
As explained by Adu Vaarman, a representative of the Estonian team, the program is prepared using a special computer program that simulates visual effects. All of them are worked out separately and assembled into a single composition. A special place is occupied by the selection of music. This year it was subordinated to the previously designated theme of the festival - the Year of Cinema.
The best programs were selected by the festival jury, which included professional pyrotechnicians and famous cultural figures: TV presenter Yuliy Gusman, actors Irina Medvedeva and Fedor Dobronravov, head of the Department national policy, interregional relations and tourism of the city of Moscow Vladimir Chernikov, President of the Russian Pyrotechnic Association Nikolay Varenykh and others.
The best pyrotechnic shows of the festival were chosen as a result of the voting. The Grand Prix was won by a team from China. "This is the only team that has not a single musical theme you won't be able to find out. If everyone else understands that we watched films and listened to music, then we did not watch Chinese films and it is very difficult to recognize a familiar melody,” Kosenko noted.
The team from Kazakhstan took first place, Azerbaijan and Russia took second and third place, respectively. Separately, the jury awarded pyrotechnicians from Portugal with the Audience Award.
Fireworks show
The most colorful part of the closing of the festival began only with sunset at 21.30. During the wait, the guests of the holiday managed to get wet more than once in the rain, which started unexpectedly every now and then.
“If you remember what happened on Friday, many people had a question: will there be a festival at all? We did absolutely everything to make it happen. Because of the rains, of course, the landscape suffered a little, there are floods. But we can’t do that regulate, especially considering the fact that three months of precipitation fell,” Kosenko said.
Heavy rain hit Moscow again on Friday, flooding the roadway in the city center. Rainy and hot weather continued until the end of the week, threatening the festival. But the thunderstorms passed it by and only slightly frightened the guests, who were hiding under the canopy of trees growing in the park. But in the evening the sky cleared up, so guests were able to fully enjoy all the colors of the fireworks.
For an hour and a half, multi-colored patterns appeared in the sky: flowers and fiery fountains illuminated the sky so brightly that even the dark night receded for a moment, and it seemed that dawn was about to come. Each team amazed the spectators with their pyrotechnic skills, and they, in turn, thanked them with their applause.
The festival was organized by the Pyrotechnic Technologies company with the support of the Moscow government. The general information agency of the festival is the International information Agency"Russia today".
On August 18-19, the best pyrotechnic teams in the world will paint the sky of the capital with millions of lights: Moscow will host one of the brightest and largest events of the summer - International festival fireworks "Rostec".
This year, leading pyrotechnicians from Austria, Andorra, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Slovakia and the USA will surprise the audience and compete for the title of the best.
Also, as part of the festival, for the first time in Russia, viewers will see a multimedia show of 120 dynamic fountains dancing to the rhythm of classical and modern music, a light show, projections on water screens in combination with art laser design and use latest technologies. The length of the installation will be 500 meters. The height of the fountain jet will reach 40 meters. The show's producer is one of the best show designers in Austria, Michel Anton.
This is the fourth time the event has been held with the support of the Moscow Government. Last year the festival attracted more than 700,000 spectators.
“Once again, Moscow will become the center of attraction for the leaders of the world market of pyrotechnic displays. “Tens of thousands of volleys await festival guests in the Brateevsky Cascade Park,” said Nikolai Gulyaev, head of the Moscow Department of Sports and Tourism, “I am confident that pyrotechnic masters from different countries will find something to surprise the sophisticated Moscow audience this year.”
Year of Volunteer and Charitable Activities
In the Year of the Volunteer, the theme of the festival is dedicated to goodness and magic. It will be revealed at different levels: from the daytime program to pyrotechnic shows.
“For the Rostec company, which includes the majority of pyrotechnic enterprises in Russia, the fireworks festival is not only a platform for demonstrating the technological capabilities of Russian pyrotechnics, but also a chance to give a real holiday to the residents and guests of the capital,” comments the assistant general director for social projects Rostec State Corporation, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company organizing the Pyrotechnic Technologies festival, Yulia Voronova. - We pay great attention to the social component of the event. The partners of the festival this year were the charitable foundations “Line of Life”, “Old Age in Joy”, “Penetrating into the Heart”, the Konstantin Khabensky Foundation and the Vera Hospice Fund. To support the funds, a number of volunteer and charitable activities will take place at the site.”
Art objects and day program
Traditionally, during the festival, Brateevsky Cascade Park turns into an interactive open-air museum with many art objects. This year they are being developed by the legendary artist and experimenter Andrei Bartenev. All art objects will be tactile, you can interact with each of them: hug it, climb on it, take a photo. Walking through the art labyrinth, viewers will meet a cat in the sun’s rays, a bear with an armful of flowers, an elephant and many more exhibits that will charge you with solar energy and joy. The height of some of them exceeds 5 meters. The main symbol and art object of the festival will be a sunbeam.
On August 18 and 19, Brateevsky Cascade Park will open to guests at 14:00. During the day, all visitors will be able to take part in active and board games, compete in bossaball (similar to volleyball, but on inflatable mats), curling, and go through an obstacle course. For the youngest visitors of the festival there will be a large animation zone, “silent parties” in the dome cinema, a children’s dance area and much more. And lovers of intellectual leisure will be able to take part in quizzes or relax while watching their favorite films and cartoons on the big screen in the open air. And, of course, as always, many creative master classes will be held on the site.
Music program
From 18:30 to 20:30 musicians will perform on the main stage. On August 18, the headliners of the concert program will be the groups “Tantsy Minus” and “Chizh & Co” with their favorite hits of several generations. On the second day of the festival, guests will enjoy a performance by the group “Zveri”, which will perform best works from different albums.
Fireworks show
The competitive fireworks show starts at 21:00. Every day, viewers will be able to see four performances: on August 18, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, and the USA will present their programs; on August 19, Andorra, Great Britain, Greece, and Slovakia. A competent international jury will monitor the technical details of the performances. It included award-winning pyrotechnicians from the USA, Romania, Portugal, Canada and Spain. The entertainment value of the show will be assessed by representatives of the amateur jury - composer and producer Igor Krutoy and film director Pavel Chukhrai. The audience will be able to vote for the best performance along with them. Based on the results of SMS voting, the winner of the People's Choice Award will be selected.
Teams will present programs consisting of two parts: business card participant - fireworks in the colors of the national flag accompanied by music with national flavor - and a free program on the theme of goodness and magic. The performances will be accompanied by a laser and water-light show specially created for the festival.
The online broadcast of the fireworks show will be conducted by MIA Rossiya Segodnya, Yandex and social network"In contact with".
Admission to the festival is free for children under 7 years old (accompanied by an adult with tickets).
The organizer of the festival is the Pyrotechnic Technologies company.
You can view the program and purchase tickets starting today on the festival website
On August 19 and 20, 2017, an international fireworks festival was held in Moscow. It was held in Brateevsky Cascade Park. The participants were 8 pyrotechnic teams from different countries. On August 19, Austria, Armenia, Romania and Japan performed. August 20 - Russia, China, Croatia and Brazil. The performances were evaluated by a professional jury. Spectators could also vote via SMS directly during the teams’ performances.
We visited Brateevsky Park on August 20. I’ll say right away that the impressions are twofold. The show itself is amazing, but the organization is disgusting. We had a large company: 4 adults and 3 children. Seats were taken on stand A. It is located close to the river.
So, a story in three acts.
ACT 1 - ENTRANCE
The fireworks show was scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. We (me, my husband and my 3.5-year-old son) met with friends (also with children 3.5 and 7 years old) near the Borisovo metro station at 20:00. The option with a car was shallow right away, realizing that there would be problems with parking.
The number of people near the metro was already alarming. We went with the general flow towards the park. It was not possible to approach the park directly. Borisovskie Prudy Street was completely blocked. The cordon, the National Guard - everything is serious. The flow of people was directed along the blocked street towards the Brateevsky Bridge (in reverse side from the park). From the bridge it was already possible to walk towards the park. Apparently, in this way they tried to spread out the crowd and avoid queues at the entrance. By the way, there were free toilets along the way. It was a long and far walk. It's good that everyone was excited. We arrived on a positive note, but the crowd of people personally bothered me.
At the entrance to the park, tickets are checked and bracelets are put on according to the ticket price. Children enter free of charge. You need to go through a metal detector and then show the contents of all bags.
The journey from the metro to the park took us almost an hour! The density of visitors in the park has increased sharply. There were no signs visible. It is not clear which side of the podium it is on. I had to ask representatives of the National Guard several times where to go. It is very difficult to navigate in a crowd. People occupied all the space: they sat and lay on every lawn. The closer we got to the intended location of the stands, the more difficult it was to move forward. I was afraid to step on someone's feet, hands, or even head. Several times we ran into barriers and had to find another road. By some miracle, we still found the entrance to the stands area. It took us 30 minutes to do this. We had to practically run to our sector. We saw the first salute of fireworks in the form of the Russian flag during the raid. While the presenter greeted the audience, we managed to reach the desired sector and take our seats.
ACT 2 - FIREWORKS FESTIVAL
As soon as we sat down, the performance of the pyrotechnic team from Russia began almost immediately. The tension after the crush and wandering disappeared. From the rostrum And the most best review, apparently everything was fine.
Fireworks were launched directly over the Moscow River from the opposite bank. Each performance lasted 10 minutes, was accompanied by music and was very spectacular. Between the performances of the pyrotechnic teams, the presenter entertained the audience with stories and various interviews. Each number was rated on a 100-point scale.
The children were delighted and the adults too. Our son clapped and squealed with delight for the first two performances, then he got tired and just silently watched attentively. I didn’t make any attempts to leave, which is a big compliment to the whole event.
Each foreign team was required to use one musical composition dedicated to Moscow. Probably due to the fact that the theme of the festival is Moscow on seven hills. We were most amused by the Chinese with their song Podmoskovnye Evenings in Chinese.
It was the best fireworks display I've ever seen. I liked the performance of China and Brazil the most. However, none of these teams took a prize. The rating system remains a mystery to us. Well, at least the Chinese team won the People's Choice Award.
ACT 3 - EXIT
After the last team performed, it was announced that Russia was the winner. People began to leave the stands while the presenter announced the results. We sat until the last, as it seemed to us. When the stands were almost empty, we also decided to move forward. At the exit from the stands there were volunteers who showed the direction to the Borisovo metro station. We didn't see a single volunteer again. After a couple of minutes, the crowd thickened so much that the children had to be carried in their arms for safety. Everyone walked shoulder to shoulder. This was the moment when I was really afraid that we could all be run over here if panic suddenly broke out. At some point, the crowd split up and some people walked across the lawns, but in the end everyone ran into the fence and walked back into the general crowd. There was no management, no control, no one told people where to go to get out of the park.
We finally got out of the crowd and out of the park and ended up on the still closed Borisovskie Prudy street. We took a detour again. When we reached the Brateevsky Bridge, the fences were removed along the entire street. The crowd poured through all the streets and courtyards towards the metro. We decided not to stand in line to enter the metro and stood outside in the courtyard for half an hour. Then we calmly went into the subway.
The journey from the stands to the metro ended up taking us more than an hour.
EPILOGUE
The fireworks were incredible, amazing, spectacular. Everyone was greatly impressed by what they saw. The children are delighted, the adults are happy. The organization of this entire event is simply disgusting.
Shall we go again? Don't know. I would like to, but in such a crowd with children it is very scary. For safety reasons, it is worth coming much earlier, when there is not such an influx of spectators. And leave 40-60 minutes after the end of the show. Perhaps then we will be able to avoid the crush. And definitely buy tickets only for the stands.
