On May 1, the VIII Festival of Icebreakers started in the "Northern Capital". This year, the event takes place as part of the celebration of the opening of the tourist season in St. Petersburg. The icebreakers of the North-Western Basin Branch of FSUE "Rosmorport" the Kapitan Nikolaev, the Ivan Krusenstern and the Kapitan Zarubin took part in providing icebreaking assistance in the Gulf of Finland, and now are moored to the Lieutenant Schmidt embankment and are ready to welcome residents and guests of the city on board.

The Nevskaya Zastava icebreaker-tug and the Krasin icebreaker-museum also became the participants of the water show.

For two days free access to the icebreakers will be provided for everyone. Crew members, as well as cadets of Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping and St. Petersburg State Marine Technical University will meet the visitors. Guests of the icebreakers will be told about the structure of this type of vessels and the life of the crews on board.

The traditional waltz of tugs will be the culmination of the festival. Several tugs will circle synchronously to the tunes of the famous waltzes, then diverging, then coming together again, releasing powerful water fountains.

The festival with the participation of the FSUE “Rosmorport” icebreakers has been held since 2014 and, despite the difficult epidemiological situation, is popular not only among the residents of St. Petersburg – people from other cities also come to see the maritime workers. The main goal of the event is to show the status of Russia as a great sea power, and St. Petersburg, in turn, as its sea capital.