Gala Concert in Palace Square Closes SPIEF 2019
The four-day SPIEF Festival of Culture, organized by the Roscongress Foundation and the government of St. Petersburg included more than 100 events over the span of 4 days. Museums, theatres, concert venues, exhibition centres, parks, and estates offered their programmes. Two fund-raising events, official receptions, and ceremonies were held.
“St. Petersburg traditionally becomes a true centre of global culture during the days of the Forum. Concerts that took place in the Palace Square were a real gift to both residents and visitors to St. Petersburg, a place where Forum participants could relax and unwind after the intense business programme,” said Anotn Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, Executive Secretary of the SPIEF Organizing Committee.
Tens of thousands of St. Petersburgers, tourists, and Forum participants attended the first Music Fest ‘From Classics to Rock’ that was held for two days in the Palace Square, to enjoy good music. On the first day, classical music was represented by singers of the Vienna State Opera – Andrea Bocelli and Aida Garifullina. The final day saw rock and symphony come together as legendary rock band Bi-2, accompanied by a symphony orchestra conducted by the Honoured Artist of Russia Felix Aranovsky, hit the stage. The concert gathered an audience of 50,000 people. The performance of Bi-2 with the orchestra lasted for 2 hours being of the most exciting events of the Festival of Culture.
Awards ceremony for winners of various prizes and contests were held as part of the Festival. The Official Reception hosted by the SPIEF Organizing Committee featured awards presentation to the winners of the ‘International Cooperation and Development of International Trade’ Prize and the winners of the district stage of the national ‘Exporter of Year’ Prize in the North-West Federal District.
The ‘International Cooperation and Development of International Trade’ Prize is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Moscow Center for International Cooperation, and Kommersant Publishing House. The presentation of this prestigious award is held alongside significant international events organized by the Roscongress Foundation. The award was given to Chairman of the Council of the Federation of the Russian Federation Committee on Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachev, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian Export Centre Andrey Slepnev, Rector of MGIMO University Anatoly Torkonov, General Director of the International Medical Cluster Foundation Mikhail Yugay, Head of Procter&Gamble in Eastern Europe and Middle Asia Sotirios Marinidis, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev, President of the French-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Emmanuel Quidet.
The awards of the ‘Exporter of the Year’ Prize were given to representatives of the winning companies in 10 nominations for accomplishments in export. The winners were Voskhod Agro-Industrial Complex in the ‘Exporter of the Year in the Agro-Industrial Complex’ nomination (Small and Medium Entrepreneurship), Russian Standard (St. Petersburg) in the ‘Exporter of the Year in the Agro-Industrial Complex’ nomination (Large Business), Nordinkraft Company (Vologda Region) in the ‘Exporter of the Year in Industry’ nomination (Small and Medium Entrepreneurship), Acron (Novgorod Region) in the ‘Exporter of the Year in Industry’ nomination (Large Business), Znamensky Composite Factory (Kaliningrad Region) in the ‘Exporter of the Year in High Technology’ nomination (Small and Medium Entrepreneurship), BIOCAD (St. Petersburg) in the ‘Exporter of the Year in High Technology’ nomination (Large Business), National BioService (St. Petersburg) in the ‘Exporter of the Year in Services’ nomination (Small and Medium Entrepreneurship), Modul (St. Petersburg) in the ‘Exporter of the Year in Services’ nomination (Large Business), Pragmatika Service (Kaliningrad Region) in the ‘Breakthrough of the Year’ nomination (Small and Medium Entrepreneurship), Sodrugestvo (Kaliningrad Region) in the ‘New Geography’ nomination (Large Business).
The Exhibition ‘Artificial Intelligence and Intercultural Dialogue’ will be held till 7 July 2019 in St. Petersburg dedicated to creative capabilities of artificial intelligence. The exhibition is organized by the State Hermitage Museum and the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The exhibition features works of 14 artists and art groups from 10 countries: Lulwah Al-Homoud (Saudi Arabia), Daniah Al Saleh (Saudi Arabia – UK), Refik Anadol (Turkey), Davide Quayola (Italy), Mario Klingemann (Germany), Egor Kraft (Russia), Jonathan Monaghan (USA), Kostya Novoselov in Collaboration with Zhestkov Studio (Russia - UK), Norimichi Hirakawa (Japan), Sun Xun (China), Aaajiao (China), Obvious (France), Team Void (South Korea), and ::vtol:: (Russia). The exhibition is co-curated by Dmitry Ozerkov and Victoria Kondrashova.
