The echo of drum roll and fanfares filled the Moscow streets when teams from 12 countries and two international crews threw a splendid performance on the Red Square, making the heart of Russia beat to melodies expressing each nation's unique spirit. Rain and clouds could not derail the show — on the contrary, the thick wet air even helped spread the sound better, as we know from physics lessons.
In addition to national marches, Egyptian pharaoh-like dressed musicians and their colleagues from Turkey's Janissary band Mehter even played the legendary Soviet song "Katyusha" to the visitors' delight.
Switzerland's Top Secret Drum Corps went even beyond music — they literally added fire to their amazing performance by staging fights using flags and drumsticks and launching crackers.
Uzbek participants got a hand when one of them pulled off an impossible trick by playing the karnay — a two-meter long trumpet — while holding it vertically only by his lips!
Probably the most unexpected part of the show began when scores of Dao monks from China's Wudang Shan — the cradle of martial arts — poured out into the square to disseminate harmony and youth through lightning-fast movements resembling the powers of nature.
The show culminated when French music icon Mireille Mathieu devoted her immortal hits to Valery Khalilov, the head of Russia's Alexandrov Ensemble killed in a plane crash on December 25, 2016.
Finally, all the participants returned to the venue to put a joint finishing touch, led by the People's Artist of Russia, Tamara Gverdsiteli, to the opening ceremony.
The show, which is taking place in Moscow for the 10th time, comes to an end on September 3.
"We like Moscow, this big city is so beautiful," members of the Turkish delegation told Sputnik, adding that the weather is rather cold for them.
Military forces from different countries, including NATO and those who are not happy with the expanding bloc, were united and befriended by art. The festival proved that peace has a chance to set in and sent a ray of hope that maybe one day countries will limit the use of their military units to similar musical performances.
