Eighth day of St. Petersburg celebrations dedicated to Peter the Great

The eighth day of the celebratory fortnight to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg is being dedicated to Peter the Great's birthday.

Senior international figures, who have arrived in the city for the celebrations and to participate in summits, have laid flowers at the foot of a statue to Peter known as the Bronze Horseman. The monument received its name thanks to a poem by Alexander Pushkin.

A gala concert, "300 years of St. Petersburg", will be held at the Mariinsky Theatre today in the evening. Valery Gergiyev will be the conductor and artistic director of the event. Stars of the famed St. Petersburg theatre will take the stage: Rene Fleming, Dmitri Khvorostovky, Olga Borodina, Anna Netrebko, Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishenyova and Svetlana Zakharova. They will be accompanied by the Mariinsky Theatre Symphonic Orchestra.

The whole world will be able to see the concert live on the television, and it will be shown again on May 31.

Events to mark the anniversary will be held in the St. Petersburg's central squares, theatres, concert halls and in all the city's municipal districts.