Maslenitsa

We visited "Maslenitsa - Slavic Pancake Festival" at Fed Square.   Traditionally, this celebrates the end of winter (well, in the northern hemisphere) and occurs before (eastern) Lent.  Thus, it's the last opportunity to have some non-fasting foods and to participate in some fun activities before Lent.  I guess there's a similar theme here to western Shrove Tuesday.

It was a lovely day, and it was well attended.   There was a range of activities, certainly not limited to pancakes - but they were there.   There was a series of performances on the stage by dance groups and singers from Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Ukrainian and Polish groups (perhaps others as well), a number of very popular food stalls and a fair area.  

Kolo

According to the program, there were some events in which you could participate (including a ribbon carousel and tug-of-war). There was a kolo while we were there.

We encountered quite a number of friends and acquaintances, so there was a bit of catching up.  These included a former workmate of mine who I had not seen for over 25 years (he recognised me, but I only identified him after lots of clues!)

Main stage