Алые Паруса - Alay Parusa

On the 20th of June , a festival Алые Паруса was held.This festival is to celebrate the graduation of russian students from university.And you bet , the whole town was flooded with party-goers dancing to the music and waiting for the fireworks.There were stages outside the Hermitage and onVasilyevsky Islandlet where performances were being held.

Here is a link ( in russian )
http://www.fontanka.ru/2010/06/20/002/

The fireworks started at 2am,the darkest point of time of White Nights.And the Ship with red sails sailed down Neva River a few minutes after the fireworks.
 

Picure from http://www.google.ru/imglanding?q=%D0%9F%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B0-2010&imgurl=http://www.allsauna.ru/pics/news/parusa2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.allsauna.ru/hotnews/55.html&usg=__WKVdPjKJn4YVKG5Eemr9IahCKRw=&h=313&w=300&sz=23&hl=ru&sig2=j9uvCBt0SL7pwS2LJeb1-Q&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=4mIUauSwuvWpTM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=112&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%25D0%259F%25D0%25B0%25D1%2580%25D1%2583%25D1%2581%25D0%25B0-2010%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dru%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GZAZ_en%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=sckfTLaPK5CFOPbV9Y0K&um=1&newwindow=1&sa=N&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GZAZ_en&tbs=isch:1&start=0#tbnid=4mIUauSwuvWpTM&start=0

This was a old tradition but was stopped for many years during the soviet times.But recently , the festival was revived once again.The event was sponsored by банк россии.( Bank Russia ),A new bank which Putin has a stake in.

For this special occasion, the metros opened at 4am instead of the usual 6am.And exhausted people were so desperate to get home that they refused to join the queue ,climbing over the barriers to get into metro station.Much to the discontentment of those who queued up.