If you wish to catch the departing splendour of a warm autumn, do not miss the “Friends of Saint Petersburg” Festival, which invites you to attend, free of charge, dozens of events at all the key cultural and historical venues of Saint Petersburg

If you wish to catch the departing splendour of a warm autumn, do not miss the “Friends of Saint Petersburg” Festival, which invites you to attend, free of charge, dozens of events at all the key cultural and historical venues of Saint Petersburg. What could be a greater contribution to the preservation of heritage than the close attention of the widest possible public? In all, 15 thousand free tickets are available. Add to this the free transfer to Tsarskoye Selo and Oranienbaum, running every 30 minutes from Pobedy Square on every day of the festival, and “Friends of Saint Petersburg” offers the chance to economise on the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream and to be spared the labour of planning the journey. If you are in a romantic frame of mind, invite your vis-à-vis on the most unusual of dates to Peterhof, with a screening of a VR film about Catherine the Second and open-air art installations. If you wish to spend time with the family, an excursion to, say, the Catherine Park will make an excellent choice for the weekend. And for those of a melancholy disposition inclined to wander alone, “Friends of Saint Petersburg” has prepared a whole series of podcasts in the “Audio Guides” section. Besides this, you can look forward to master classes and lectures by leading professionals of restoration and museum work, film premieres and exhibitions of contemporary art, such as the public art project “Subcultural Landscape”, which sets out an original system of navigation and will lead festival participants along a new route from the Summer Garden through the Central District of the city.