The 10th annual festival of French culture, French Spring, began in Kyiv on April 2, with a traditional street show.
Hundreds of candles, lanterns and fires were lit in the capital’s Hryshko Botanical Garden as a part of the performance called “Lights.” The event was visited by thousands of people and ended with a bright pyrotechnical show.
Organized by the French Institute in Kyiv, French Spring has become a tradition and usually marks the beginning of the cultural spring in the city. Street performance has always been a trademark of the festival. Thus, its popularity results in huge crowds and causes traffic problems in Kyiv. A lot of people could not see the street show Ringers last year because Sofiyivska Square was full of people. This year many people could not get into the only gate of the overcrowded botanical garden and went home. The traffic jam in this part of the city was made worse by the residual snow, which was not removed from the streets in time.
Apart from Kyiv, French Spring will take place in Lviv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Kharkiv and will present French theater, cinema and art, including a record number of French-Ukrainian art projects.
Story by Oksana Faryna
