KOREA Festival

  • October 19, from midday to midnight; October 20, from midday to 7.45pm 
  • Artplay 
  • Free admission

Whether you’ve already succumbed to the K-wave craze or are still figuring out what all this is about, KOREA Festival is one of this weekend’s finest offerings. You’ll have a rare chance to explore the country’s ancient culture, sample the crème de la crème of Korean cuisine (the food court is looking very promising), have a bop to K-Pop, delight in the incomparable Korean cinema (as well as doramas, be still our beating hearts) and even win a ticket to Korea to do all of the aforementioned onsite. The full program is available on the event’s website. 

Festival of Nordic Cinema 

  • October 16-20
  • Velikan Park cinema theater 
  • Free admission

There is cinema, and there is Nordic cinema; an entire class of its own, serving a hearty dose of cinematic class in each viewing. So believe us when we tell you that this weekend’s Festival of Nordic Cinema is not an event to miss out on. On Saturday October 19, lament with Anori, a tragic love story inspired by the old Greenlandic myths, at 3pm, indulge in a session of good ole mind-boggling with Danish psychodrama Nina at 5pm, or dart a wistful look into the past with Danish historical drama A Fortunate Man. On Sunday October 20, tut-tut at the perils of gambling addiction with Putting Lipstick on a Pig, a documentary straight off the Åland Islands, from 5pm, and learn more about the lives of Finnish soldiers during the Soviet-Finnish war and onwards in a cinematic rendition of one of Finland’s most iconic novels, An Unknown Soldier, from 7pm. 

Day of Italian Language

  • October 19, midday to 5.30pm
  • Italica center of Italian language and culture
  • Free admission if registered in advance

This Saturday, have a go at speaking the sunny language of Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca at the Day of Italian Language, organized by the Italica center of Italian language and culture in a bid to cheer St. Petersburgers up from unhappy thoughts about the weather. The program includes language, culture and cooking workshops and presentations by the center’s native Italian teachers. Do bear in mind that you have to register here in advance to attend. 

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri 

Revisit the iconic, albeit apocryphal, story of 18th-century fanboying gone sour in a performance of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Mozart and Salieri, to take place this Saturday October 19 at the eerie Annenkirche. Soloists from St. Petersburg’s leading opera houses will be joined by a choir and symphonic orchestra, so nothing should spoil this two-act thing of sweet, sweet revenge and rowdy-dow, and you can play the “spot the ghost!” game during the break as befits in Annenkirche.