Lukashenko, Gref inaugurate unique musical fountain in Minsk

The unusual fountain is located in Yanka Kupala Park on the Svisloch River. It is a gift Sberbank of Russia has bestowed upon the Belarusian capital on the occasion of Independence Day.

According to the head of state, the fountain has been inaugurated in one of the most beautiful places of Minsk with a unique history – a park named after the Belarusian poet Yanka Kupala. “It was opened exactly 70 years ago. Think about it: the year is 1949, the country has yet to recover after the war, many people live in dugout houses, but people aspire for beautiful things and plant a park. And today, on Belarus' Independence Day in the year of the park's anniversary we are opening a multimedia fountain here just like we've agreed with Herman Gref, our good friend of Belarus,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The president noted that with the opening of this unique fountain the bank of the Svisloch River will become brighter. It will become a center of attraction for young people, a new site for interesting projects. He wished for as many interesting, dynamic, and creative projects as possible in order to make the city's life even brighter.

In turn, Herman Gref stated that the fountain in Minsk is unique: Sberbank has not built such installations on bodies of water before. “It is the world's only fountain in terms of the scale and the location. We've never made a fountain on water: it was complicated from the technological point of view,” he stressed. “I would very much like this token of a genuine attitude, the love of Russians towards Belarusians to be popular among young people, Minsk residents. I would like it to cheer all of you.”

The inauguration ceremony continued with a fountain show accompanied by Vivaldi's music and a small concert program. At the end of the evening Minsk residents and visitors took part in the nationwide campaign Let's Sing the Anthem Together. The day ended with festive fireworks.

The construction of the fountain began in February 2020. BPS-Sberbank allocated over Br6 million for the project.

The fountain is a multiformat educational platform run by a sophisticated software suite. It is equipped with video projectors and lasers in order to project imagery onto a water screen.

The fountain can operate over 200 jets of water that can go as high as 30 meters. The jets of water can also create various effects and transformations.

The fountain is expected to stage a light and music show every night from 22:00 till 23:00.

Aleksandr Lukashenko and Herman Gref discussed the construction of the fountain in Minsk exactly one year ago. After meeting with the Belarusian head of state back then Herman Gref said: “Sberbank has come up with a new technology to combine light, sound, water, and image with an educational function. We put a lot of efforts into education. And we've come up with an educational fountain with lights and music. Aleksandr Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] learned about it and asked us to create such a fountain in Minsk. He and I agreed today that a presidential decree will be issued and we will go all out to implement this project here in Minsk next year by Belarus' Independence Day.”

The first multimedia fountain created at Sberbank's expense was built in Petergof in 2018. Several fountains of the kind are now used in Russia – in Saratov, Petergof, Yaroslavl, Kaliningrad, Vladimir, Ryazan, and Voronezh.