The day of VDV’s foundation – it’s “birthday”, so to say, is considered to be the 2nd of August, 1930. Still, the VDV day became an official holiday only in 2006, and has been since celebrated in many cities in Russia and the Former Soviet Republic, mostly in the bigger ones and those with paratrooper academies.
The festival will start at noon with a cannon shot from the Naryshkin Bastion announcing the beginning of the VDV’s veterans parade. The paratroopers will march through Nevsky prospect towards the Field of Mars, where they will lay wreaths and give honors to the Eternal Light.
Then, at 15:00 the festival’s main program will begin. Its guests will see low-jumps from MI-8 helicopters, weapons and combat techniques demonstrations by cadets and troopers, and, obviously, a concert where theme-based songs, like the songs about the Afghan War, will be played. An exhibition of equipage and armaments of the Airborne Troops will be also functioning during the festival.
There is also an informal tradition to this festival – the bathing of troopers in many of St. Petersburg’s fountains. The city authorities have been trying to stop this tradition on a yearly basis (last year some of the fountains were turned off for this holiday), but, as there was no official notice this year, we can expect to see the troopers in their traditional telnyashkas (similar to a sailor shirt) and blue berets bathing all over the city.