Yesterday, the opening ceremony of the winter sports and tourism festival, organized by the administration of the Angara region and tour operators of the region, took place on the ice of the Irkutsk reservoir. The theatrical performance, in which, along with surreal characters symbolizing the “indigenous peoples” and the Slavs who migrated to Siberia, ordinary athletes participated, was simultaneously reminiscent of a tracing-paper from the openings of the Winter and Summer Olympics and a school carnival, with details by SERGEY BERG and KONSTANTIN DEFISKIN.

Kommersant

The international winter games festival “Zimniada” is being held in the Angara region for the third time. The first festival took place in 2003. Then about 600 athletes and up to 10 thousand spectators took part in the games’ events. The second international festival of winter games “Zimniada-2004” was attended by 2 thousand 440 people. It was attended by athletes and tourists from 17 regions of Russia and 8 foreign countries. More than 22 thousand spectators attended sporting events. About 4 million rubles were spent on organizing the Winter Games 2004. Half of this amount was allocated from the budget of the Irkutsk region, the remaining funds were provided by the festival sponsors. “Zimniada-2005” will last until March 8; in total, its program includes more than 30 events - from skiing competitions to the opening of a polar station on Lake Baikal. According to preliminary estimates, about 15 thousand people will participate in all its events

The show began with a mysterious dance of characters dressed in large white robes with various growths, then they were joined by people in red. It was difficult to understand the meaning of the choreographic delights right away - later the director of the ceremony, Lyubov Mozhaeva, explained to Kommersant that the white symbolized the shamans and indigenous peoples of Siberia, and the red symbolized the Slavic travelers who sailed to these lands on ships. Then came a change of episodes with kaleidoscopic speed - members of the Baikal Amazons car club pulled up to the stage. A hovercraft approached, kicking up a dusting of snow, and gunpowder charges were fired, showering the stage with confetti. Around the same time, a parachutist floated in the sky, connected by a cable to a snowmobile. Then a balloon, tied to a car, floated in the opposite direction - smoke bombs attached to its cable left stripes in the sky the color of the Russian flag
Finally, the athletes solemnly walked across the ice. Their groups were led by actors in foam costumes depicting the Baikal endemic - the seal, the polar bear, as well as three-dimensional geometric figures, in which it was not possible to identify any animal. In the finale, the ceremony participants lit the “Winter Games fire” - the burner was placed in a large cube of compressed snow - and released several hundred red balloons into the sky. Deputy Governor of the Irkutsk Region Larisa Zabrodskaya, who spoke during a break in the show, explained to the audience that “one of its main goals (the Winter Games - Kommersant) is to attract tourists to the region during the non-traditional tourist season.”
According to Kommersant's observations, about 500 Irkutsk residents came to the opening of the Winter Games 2005 - significantly less than last year. However, then the festival was opened in the village of Listvyanka on the shore of Lake Baikal, where hundreds of Irkutsk residents come on weekends and without any holidays. The organizers of the next festival cited the weather - the average temperature did not exceed 20 degrees below zero, and a cold wind was blowing.
According to the organizers, the show smoothly turned into sports competitions. Immediately after the ceremony, competitions for the Winter Games cup took place in mini-football, snow volleyball, sports demonstrations and the final of ice racing.

Kommersant (Irkutsk) No. 32 from 02/24/2005

"Zimniada" took to the ice