Situated just south of the Arctic Circle, at almost 60 degrees north latitude, St. Petersburg, Russia, experiences legendary winters that bathe the city in what seems like a perpetual blanket of snow. After the long months of bitter cold dissipate and the winter white mantle melts, the city of St. Petersburg celebrates the arrival of long days of endless sun with White Nights, an annual international arts festival.

Tourists and students flock here every year for the legendary White Nights, but Muscovites in particular come in droves. Reveling peaks around mid-June, when the sun tries to set but never quite makes it, idly hovering on the horizon as if suspended by puppet strings.

From the end of May through mid-July, there are about 80 evenings when it’s still light late into the night, and the people of St. Petersburg make the most of it. In particular, the weeks around the summer solstice give rise to a Russian brand of joie de vivre — zhizni radost — that resonates in festivals, parties, operas, ballets and even coveted outdoor concerts. Fireworks mark the end of the festivities, providing an enveloping illumination as if to store up for the next coming winter.

The Scarlet Sails event in late June marks the culmination of White Nights and is the largest public event anywhere in Russia, with more than 1 million people in attendance. It begins with a mock pirate battle on the Neva River followed by a fireworks extravaganza, climaxing with the arrival of a tall ship with blood-red sails, imagery from a popular Russian children’s book.

Though White Nights was a fledgling event until about a decade ago, a booming economy morphed the festival into something grander than was possible during the Soviet era. Today, White Nights is intrinsically linked to the identity of St. Petersburg as Russia’s cultural hub.