Festival of knowledge in zoo

A festival of knowledge is to take place at the Moscow zoo on June 8 -- a holiday for smart boys and girls, the zoo's press-service reported. The festival's sponsor -- company Bayersdorf which produces cosmetics under the brand name of Nivea -- has been helping the Moscow zoo for a fourth year to look after the animals and give financial backing to its educational centre.

The main aim of the festival is to cultivate in children a caring attitude to living nature and to get them acquainted with its diversity. This year it will be held as an Olympiad -- with all its traditional trappings. The ceremony will kick off with a march-past of Olympians -- the most honorary guests of the festivities, inmates of children's homes. A Bayersdorf spokesman will hand to the educational centre money to build an amphitheatre and an awning for a summer theatre.

The lighting of an Olympic flame will signal the start of the Festival of Knowledge. Quizzes will be held in several places of the zoo at once, drawings of lots, and performances. Each child visiting the zoo will get a sort of credit book to put down special marks, in case he or she takes part in competitions. Those who gain the most points will reach finals and contest a special prize -- a children's encyclopaedia.

The winner will be determined a month after the festival. But there will be no losers among the participants -- everyone will get a prize from Nivea. Between 10,000 and 15,000 people are expected to attend.