On 2 September, the closing ceremony of the Voronezh international festival of gardens and flowers “Garden City” was held. The aim of the festival is to show the best park, garden, and landscape design projects and to raise environmental awareness. This time the festival was dedicated to the Year of Japan in Russia and the Year of Volunteers. 164 participants demonstrated their “green gardens”, floral arrangements, and works of art at the festival.
Voronezh State University also presented a floral arrangement and won the grand prize in the “Big Garden” award. The idea for theme of the festival came from Jago Keen, Head of Keen Consultants, an international consultancy practice specialising in green infrastructure.
The prize was awarded by the provisional governor of the Voronezh Region, Alexander Gusev.
“If we look around and we’ll see that the 8th “Garden City” festival has been a success. We can see wonderful designs and an excited audience, and for this I would like to thank the participants of the festival who had the talent and the inspiration to create such a thing of beauty”, – said the provisional governor.
The festival also included a performance by the VSU folk music group “Terem”. It took place at a spacious stage near the Young Pioneers’ Hill that housed a reproduction of an ethnic village with a wooden bell tower, straw huts, goats, sheep and cows grazing around, craftsmen’s stands selling various items, and an enormous swing set. “Terem” sang songs and invited the audience to take part in traditional Russian dances and games. The performance fitted the ethnic village nicely and was a treat for a lot of people.
