Every year, in the westernmost city of Russia, the people's April holiday "Herring Day", which has already become traditional, takes place. As you probably already understood, this festival is held annually, in the month of April on its second Saturday, in the city of Kaliningrad. So we visited such a significant event in the region.
The feast of the Herring, and the feast of Long sausage, traditionally held on the territory of the Museum of the World ocean from the Vieux port at the address: Russia, Kaliningrad, embankment of Peter the Great, 1. We mentioned about "a Day long sausage", so, it is also a celebration which has already become annual Kaliningrad festival, its main event is the holiday show, in which guests can see the long procession sausage product, and after all this sausage eaten together. We talked in detail about the Long Sausage festival and the World Ocean Museum itself in a previous article, read and see the photo here.
The Herring Festival started at 10:00 a.m., and its main opening took place from 12:00 p.m. From 10 to 12, people just walked, drank and ate. So, by and large, there is nothing to do on the holiday until 12 o'clock.
Herring Day was opened by a solemn parade of fishing fleet veterans, accompanied by an orchestra and girls in fancy suits. Barrels of herring were carried in front of the parade. Nothing like that, it's even fun to watch, if for the first time. All this festive procession took place on the territory of the museum and ended at the main stage.
The performance was opened by dancing sailors and songs of brave guys. This year the herring festival coincided with the 71st anniversary of the storming of Konigsberg, so the performance was of a double nature.
Then the Governor of the Kaliningrad Region and the director of the Museum of the World Ocean made speeches from the main stage. Barrels of herring, which were carried in the parade, were handed to the Governor and Mayor of Kaliningrad, explaining this as a sign of appreciation for taking care of the city. It would be better to open these barrels, show the herring and give it to veterans or people in the crowd, it would be much more spectacular and fun. The governor, of course, said that she would be happy to share the herring with the residents of the city, but naturally no one came up, they were ashamed.
After that, veterans and the chairman of the Lithuanian Fishermen's Association took the stage with speeches. It seems to be called that, if I'm not mistaken.
After that, they sang the Herring Day Anthem. It's a funny hymn, listen to it:
Then the gala concert continued until the evening. Artists of local dance ensembles performed on the stage.
In addition to the main stage, several other small stages were placed on the territory of the museum, where performances also took place.
After the parade and the opening of the Herring Day, the guests of the holiday walked around the museum, tasted the cuisine in tents and swept fish products off the shelves.
The sea came to the people for the holiday, it was sometimes not very pleasant to walk in such a crowd. Such a large-scale event should be held on a larger territory, then it will be more comfortable to walk and enjoy the holiday.
Various souvenir products were sold in the tents
A lot of tents with ready-made food were also set up. What was not there, kebabs of meat, chicken and fish, fish soup cooked in large pots on fire, pilaf, local and Czech beer, various fish and, of course, the highlight of the holiday - Herring. The price for a plate of fish soup is from 100 to 120 rubles, sandwiches with fish from 70 to 150 rubles, pilaf - 150 rubles, barbecue from 130 to 150 rubles per 100 grams, beer from 100 rubles.
Queues in some tents were simply unreal, it probably took at least half an hour to stand there.
Wooden tables and benches were placed near the food tents
There were tents of representatives from Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland. In one Latvian tent, chocolate products were sold in the form of locks, bolts, washers and other tools. Very tasty in this tent was hot chocolate with whipped cream. The cost of a cup of hot chocolate is 100 rubles.
The whole holiday was accompanied by his main character - Herring, well, and other fish.
During the performances, contests were held for children, fun for all ages and a quest game was held. Master classes on cooking fish dishes from leading chefs were organized for gourmets. Fish processing and catering enterprises presented their best products on the stalls of tents.
There are two research vessels on the territory of the Museum of the Sea Ocean, you can go on them and see what's inside. The ticket cost 150 rubles.
And so the holiday passed, people walked, drank, ate and had fun. If we draw conclusions, it was quite fun. The whole holiday was held in an atmosphere of warmth and goodwill, we did not regret at all that we attended this event. The beautiful weather also contributed to all this, the day turned out to be simply magnificent, it was warm, sunny and windless, trees were blooming.
The holiday "Herring Day" in Kaliningrad has received wide publicity and is already known not only in the region, but throughout Russia and even beyond its borders. People from other cities also come to the holiday. Travel agencies even organize tourist trips to Kaliningrad with a visit to the "Herring Day". I don't know about the prices, but you can visit the holiday yourself by buying a ticket to Kaliningrad. You can get to Kaliningrad by bus, train or plane.
