Every year on September 23 Stavropol celebrates its birthday. In 2017, the celebrations spanned the entire second half of September. 240 years is almost a jubilee and an excellent occasion to plan and conduct many activities.
In 2017, the city day was celebrated at the same time as the birthday of the Stavropol region. Therefore, banners on the building of the government mention both celebrations. And there were events dedicated to the day of the region.
I can’t say that I was able to visit all the exhibitions, fairs, parades, concerts, drawing contests, openings of monuments... Oh, I really could not even attend to the establishment of the world record! But only because too many interesting things were happening around. For example, fair-sale of products produced in the region:
'Taste of the Stavropol region' it says, and small letters are the name of the bread factory.
This guy clearly loves the products he sells :)
This man bought some horses.
About 50 different events took place in Stavropol. The city will accommodate five concert venues and several dozen entertainment zones.
Here you can listen to the Russian folk song ‘Ah, my fate’ about sad love story of a girl who was left by a popular among girls but very windy Cossack.
So far I plan to show you what the center of the city looked like on September 23, and how many people were out for some fun… Or what they planned to have… why would I say that ‘or’ bit, you might think? Let me explain…
Everyone who wants to get into the very heart of Stavropol – main square of Lenin (that’s where we have our regional government and the most number of today’s events), all people supposed to past the entrances with police. Not every day of course – just for the celebrations.
What does police do? They check what you have in your bags. They just have a quick look in. So you wouldn’t bright any alcohol in or something dangerous.
When I was passing one of this police posts, two young girls were in front of me. Kids had rucksacks on their backs. Policeman asked them to open them and said:
‘Weapons, drags, alcohol… take it all out and leave it here, please’
Girls showed their bags and went in. And there was my turn to open my tiny bag.
‘But if I will take all alcohol and drags out, how will I have fun there?’ I asked the policeman.
He looked at me, smiled and said:
‘I wouldn’t worry about you having fun… So far you are THE ONLY PERSON I saw who is ACTUALLY SMILING today’.
Yeah… Russians are serious people :D
Our treasury of folk wisdom has this phrase: "Laughter without reason is the first sign of a fool".
So… just for fun… pay attention on my pictures and make a note for yourself – how many smiling people you see :)
Okay, this guy in the middle is smiling ... He's one of the former mayors of the city. I think he is allowed to do this without accusing him of being a fool :)
This is one of the newest monuments of the city - Angel the Guardian. It is located on the Alexander Square near the central square of Lenin.
Would you like to know what everything looks like if you stand right next to the Angel? Here you go…
Do you think that’s all? No! It was just the first part of my city’s birthday walk around. Keep an eye on my blog and I will show you the parade, national dancing, some pieces of parkour show and… well I won’t open all cards… you’ll see :)
