The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province will host an arts festival with Russia’s Sverdlovsk Oblast, this June to September, to promote the city’s brands and cultural exchanges between China and Russia, local authorities announced on May 26, noting that the event will cover Russian and Chinese performing arts, Chinese and Russian culture and art exhibitions, youth carnivals, and art festival for locals.

Other activities will include a choral festival, classic Chinese and Russian films, painting, gemstone, and traditional handicrafts exhibitions, and a cultural expo, lasting for more than 100 days to give people a real taste of arts with Chinese and Russian elements.

Some of the leading troupes from Russia are the National Symphony Orchestra, State Ballet Theater and Yekaterinburg Symphony Orchestra which will present ballets and musicals for visitors. The National Symphony will also give a concert together with the Harbin Symphony Orchestra, China's oldest symphony orchestra, as a curtain-raiser for the festival.

Musicians from Russia’s Khabarovsk Kray, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Yakutsk, Krasnodar, Moscow and St. Petersburg will also participate in the cultural exchange and local authorities say they will have special discounts for the residents in Harbin for various performances with free or affordable tickets.