Pancake Week Festival (Festival Maslenitsa)

Festival Maslenitsa
Teatralnaya Square
St. Petersburg, 190000
Russia
Phone: +7 812 326 4141
Fax: +7 812 314 1744
Email: post@mariinsky.ru

Maslenitsa is one of Russia’s most traditional festivals that has been celebrated in style since the country’s pre-Revolutionary period. The festivities involve the entire community from the most elite figures and officials to members of every household. The city’s venues include: Tsaritsino Meadow and the Admiralty Gardens; palaces and mansions hosting lavish parties and masked balls, and theatres’ playbills listing the finest productions. The Mariinsky Theatre’s rich Festival program include dramatic productions as well as singing and instrumental performances.

The organizers have continued the tradition of Pancake Week’s openess in the celebrations—the Mariinsky Theatre will be running a series of charity concerts. The Mariinsky Theatre and the University of St. Petersburg have revived the ancient Russian tradition of Pancake Week by organizing student balls to bid farewell to winter—parties, dancing, music (with Mariinsky Theatre performers), the ceremonial burning of the straw scarecrow of Maslenitsa, fireworks and, of course pancakes.

http://www.mariinsky.ru/