The living energy of a living city

In spite of all the “buts” and skepticism of “eternal oppositionists,” Kyiv Day was quite a success thank to, above all, activism of the not-so-indifferent public. For the traditional “official” concert on Independence Square was not much of a show – well-known pop singers and warming-up folk groups. This was all crowned with fireworks. But what occurred behind the “official” scenes was really “living” and interesting: a bicycle race, an international parade of embroidered shirts, and even flower-decked automobiles.

We, The Day, have marked the three most successful, from the angle of societal good and intellectual value, events (see the footage of each of them on our website www.day.kiev.ua).

The first is an overtly aristocratic event, the one that a European culture and art capital deserves – a classical music concert on St. Sophia Square. Read in our next issue Tetiana Polishchuk’s article “Classics into the Masses” on the page “Culture” about who suggested that Kyivites and city guests watch an opera in the open air and how many spectators the sounds of violins and operatic arias gathered.

The second, Book Arsenal, is a maximum IQ event that befits the capital of a state that presented the world with more than one genius of science, technology, and literature. Read in our next issue Nelia Vaverchak’s article “Book Arsenal 2013 Is On” on the page “Day of Ukraine” about the particularities of this year’s program and readers’ comments.

And, finally, the third is an event with an extremely high level of endorphin and “fast heartbeat.” It is the 21st annual charitable and sporting action “Racing under the Chestnuts.”

Social networking sites joked: this year “charity people” will be running under fake briottis. Maybe, it is these hapless chestnuts that created a good promo for this action, but the fact still remains. The 21st race under chestnuts gathered almost 13,000 participants.

The Den team has been fielding its own “under-chestnut runners” for two years in a row. The unchallenged leader of our team is Vitalii Kniazhansky, our newspaper’s most experienced journalist and economic observer. Although Mr. Kniazhansky’s journalistic experience is almost 2.5 times as big as that of the youngest participant Olena Skyrta, graduate of the Den’s Summer School of Journalism (she is 19), he easily outran all the young ones and finished first. Running has long been the integral part of Mr. Kniazhansky’s “living resources.” For this reason, when he sopped jogging last year on doctors’ advice, he almost got sick.