For the first time, Moscow celebrated the start of navigation in a big way. On May 12, a parade of ships and a festive concert with Timati as the headliner took place on the Pushkin embankment in Gorky Park.
15 companies participated in the festival preparations, among them the largest Russian yacht holding Burevestnik Group, one of the oldest cruise companies «Mosturflot», association of river shipping companies «River Alliance», home builder HouseBoat.
With the first blows of the market place the holiday was opened by wakeboarders from Endless Summer school. After them the Russian national hydrofoil team riders showed their skills.
The Emergencies Ministry held a short demonstration exercise to rescue a drowning person and extinguish a fire on the water - for this purpose, the RIB was set on fire on the Moscow River.
The most memorable participant of the parade was, undoubtedly, a houseboat with a helipad from the Russian company HouseBoat.
The star of Moscow's charter fleet, the 32-meter superyacht «Pallada» by Timmerman Yachts, was moored at the Pushkin embankment pier, but unfortunately did not enter the water.
The event was supported by the Ministry of Transport and the Federal Agency of Maritime and River Transport. The holiday is expected to become an annual event.
«We want to celebrate a real river festival in Moscow, which will become a national festival. Just like the MAKS air show in Moscow and Scarlet Sails in St. Petersburg, we need to promote navigation - river transportation and water tourism. Then life will return to the river, it will become a magnet - a real festival, to which the whole family will want to come», - sums up German Yelyanyushkin, Head of the Federal State Budgetary Institution «Moscow Channel», the initiator of the festival.
All in all, over 20 thousand people attended the river festival. On that day, the city carriers have taken on board about 30 thousand passengers, one and a half times more than a week ago. Including 10 thousand guests of the festival went on a river voyage from the piers of Gorky Park. In total more than 250 pleasure boats and banquet boats made the voyage on May 12.
In 2014, the authorities announced an international contest for the best concept for the development of territories adjacent to the Moscow River. The project submitted by the bureau «Project Meganom».
As part of the coastal area development concept, it is planned to clean up the Moskva River, remove all factories and industrial zones from the coastal zone, build several pedestrian bridges connecting different districts, and make all the ports a passenger port.
One of the first projects already carried out as part of the concept is the reconstruction of the territory of the ZIL plant, named «ZIL Peninsula». It is planned to fully implement the coastal zone development plan by 2035.
