LONDON, January 14 (RIA Novosti, Alexander Smotrov) - The second Russian Winter festival has opened on London's Trafalgar Square Saturday. The event is organized by the Eventica company, the Russian-British Culture Association, the Moscow and London City Halls and RIA Novosti, the main information sponsor.
The festival costing one million pounds will be a free event.
Bands from many Russian regions, including folk group Zolotoye Koltso (Golden Ring), rock band DDT and pop groups Bratya Grim, Ivan Kupala and Blestyashchiye, will participate in the event.
Moscow and London Mayors Yury Luzhkov and Ken Livingston will address the festival's guests at 4:00 p.m. local time.
After that, Kremlin regiment cadets will demonstrate their marching skills for the first time on Trafalgar Square.
Two Russian charity organizations, Liniya Zhizni (Life Line) and Severnaya Korona (Northern Crown), will collect money to help disabled children and orphan asylums during the festival.
The festival's program also includes a children's performance and a fashion show. Guests and participants of the festival will be treated to traditional Russian dishes and will be able to buy Russian souvenirs.
The festival will close at 6:30 p.m. local time.
The first Russian Winter festival gathered more than 50,000 people on Trafalgar Square on January 15, 2005.
Livingston said Friday that he admired the festival's success and hoped to make it an annual event.
Luzhkov said such events were highly important and expressed hope for seeing British stars on Moscow's Manege Square next year.
"This year the cities exchanged ice replicas of Big Ben and St. Basil's Cathedral," Luzhkov said. "I think this is very useful and [the project] has a great future."
