Samatlor Nights Festival in Nizhnevartovsk!! These are pictures of the festival that was held this past weekend. It was held to celebrate the "white nights" here---when it doesn't really get dark... Now, all of these pics were taken in the morning, around 11am, but it looks about like this at 3am too! Right now it is semi dusk from about 12am-2am... It makes it hard to sleep, but we have now put cardboard in our bedroom window so it helps make it darker, and easier to sleep--plus it looks great :)!

In these photos, you will see a woman who is part of the festival, and is dressed in a traditional russian costume. Also shown is a monument at Victory park, kids walking to the festival together, a beer tent (these are everywhere in the summer), the stage in oilman's park (the #35 is for the number of years Nizhnevartovsk has been a city), the petunias erected in oilman's park--they are in the same place they put the Christmas tree in winter. Oilman's park is also where the ice sculpture pictures, and slide pictures I took this winter.