“The lavish parade, known as the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival, attracts thousands of visitors and brings together dozens of military bands in the heart of Moscow on Red Square near the Kremlin,” Politico wrote in its Aug. 17 report.
Launched in 2007 at the request of dictator Vladimir Putin, the festival is one of Russia’s best-known military-patriotic events, alongside the May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow and Navy Day celebrations in St. Petersburg. In its early years, bands from European Union countries, Australia, and Canada took part, but international participation cratered after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“According to the festival’s Telegram channel, ‘the event has been postponed until 2027 due to circumstances beyond the organizers’ control,” the report added.
“The move comes amid an increase in Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian capital.”
The parade had been canceled only once before, in 2020,
because of the COVID-19 pandemic.