St. Petersburg SUP Carnival: Thousands of Paddleboarders Turns the Neva into a Colorful Celebration
Every year, the waterways of St. Petersburg, Russia, transform into a remarkable floating celebration as thousands of people gather on stand-up paddleboards for the Fontanka SUP Festival. What began as an unusual sporting event has developed into one of the city’s most distinctive summer celebrations, combining paddleboarding, costumes, music, creativity and the historic architecture of St. Petersburg.
The newspaper image beautifully captures the atmosphere of the event. Hundreds of colourful paddleboards fill the waterways, while participants dressed in imaginative costumes create what looks like a moving carnival on the water. The event offers a completely different way to experience one of Russia’s most famous cities.
The 2025 edition, held on August 2, marked the festival’s 10th anniversary and brought together 10,000 participants from 270 cities and 13 countries. Participants travelled approximately 8 kilometres through the rivers and canals in central St. Petersburg.
What is the St. Petersburg SUP Carnival?
The event is officially known as Fontanka SUP, an international stand-up paddleboarding festival. SUP stands for Stand-Up Paddleboarding, a water sport in which participants stand on large, stable boards and use paddles to move across the water.
But Fontanka SUP is much more than a sporting competition.
Participants are encouraged to turn their boards and themselves into colourful works of art. Costumes range from historical characters and fantasy figures to animals, cartoon-inspired designs and completely original creations.
As thousands of decorated boards move together through the city’s waterways, the event creates a spectacular floating parade.
The festival has become one of the visual highlights of St. Petersburg’s summer calendar and is often described as a combination of sport, entertainment and carnival.
How the Festival Transforms the City
St. Petersburg is famous for its rivers, canals, bridges and grand historic buildings. Normally, visitors explore these sights on foot, by boat or from the city’s streets.
During Fontanka SUP, the perspective changes completely.
Participants travel through the waterways on paddleboards, passing beneath bridges and alongside historic architecture. People watching from the banks get a unique view of thousands of colourful boards moving through the city.
The 2024 event, for example, followed an approximately 8-kilometre route through the Moyka River, Fontanka River and Kryukov Canal, passing beneath 28 bridges. Around 100,000 spectators watched the spectacle from the riverbanks.
This combination of historic architecture and colourful paddleboards is what makes the festival particularly photogenic.
Thousands of Participants in Colourful Costumes
One of the defining features of Fontanka SUP is its emphasis on creativity.
Participants do not simply arrive with ordinary sports clothing. Many spend considerable time preparing elaborate costumes specifically for the event.
The result is a parade featuring:
- Colourful costumes
- Decorated paddleboards
- Fantasy characters
- Historical and cultural themes
- Humorous outfits
- Matching group costumes
- Creative accessories
- Pets joining their owners on boards
The variety means that spectators never know exactly what they will see next.
At the 2024 festival, organisers reported 17 competition categories for creative participants, while dozens of pets also joined the event on paddleboards.
More Than Just a Sporting Event
Although paddleboarding is at the centre of the festival, the event is not primarily about winning a race.
It is designed as a mass celebration in which ordinary people can participate. Friends, families, colleagues and sports enthusiasts can join together and enjoy the city from the water.
There is also a sporting component. In 2024, approximately 300 people participated in the Fontanka CUP race, giving experienced paddleboarders an opportunity to compete separately from the main carnival.
This combination makes the festival accessible to both competitive athletes and people who simply want to enjoy a memorable day on the water.
The Record-Breaking Side of Fontanka SUP
The festival has also become notable for its large scale.
According to festival organisers, Fontanka SUP entered the Russian event-tourism record book in 2022 as Europe’s largest SUP surfing festival, with more than 6,500 participants. By 2023 and 2024, registrations had reached around 10,000 participants.
The 2024 edition produced another unusual record: 61 people were simultaneously on a single SUP board, according to the festival’s official website.
Such records demonstrate how the event has grown beyond a small local gathering into a major public celebration.
The 2025 Anniversary Festival
The 2025 edition was particularly significant because it celebrated the festival’s 10th anniversary.
More than 10,000 SUP participants took part, representing 270 cities and 13 countries. The celebration included colourful costumes, music, competitions and various activities along the route.
Participants completed an approximately 8-kilometre journey through the rivers and canals of central St. Petersburg.
The anniversary edition also included fun events such as the selection of Miss and Mister SUP, an SUP wedding, a corporate team competition and awards for some of the most original costumes.
Why St. Petersburg Is Perfect for the Festival
The geography of St. Petersburg makes it an ideal setting for a water-based festival.
The city was built around the Neva River and an extensive network of canals and smaller waterways. Bridges connect different parts of the historic centre, while magnificent buildings line many of the waterfronts.
This means the festival route becomes almost like a moving sightseeing tour.
Instead of simply looking at St. Petersburg’s architecture from the street, participants experience it from the water. They paddle through the city’s historic centre while spectators gather on bridges, embankments and public spaces.
The contrast between traditional European-style architecture and brightly coloured modern paddleboards creates a particularly memorable visual experience.
A Festival for Photography and Social Media
Fontanka SUP has naturally become a major attraction for photographers and content creators.
Thousands of people wearing colourful costumes on paddleboards provide endless opportunities for unusual photographs. The historic cityscape adds another layer to the images.
A photograph showing a participant in an elaborate costume paddling beneath a historic bridge can instantly communicate the character of the event.
The newspaper image demonstrates this perfectly: the water is crowded with boards in different colours and shapes, creating the appearance of a giant floating mosaic.
Community and Participation
Another reason for the festival’s popularity is its strong community atmosphere.
People participate individually, but many also join as groups. Corporate teams, friends and families can coordinate their costumes and boards, creating mini-parades within the larger event.
The 2024 festival included 35 corporate teams, demonstrating that the event has also become a social activity for workplaces and organisations.
For many participants, the attraction is not simply paddleboarding. It is the opportunity to become part of a huge city-wide celebration.
The Experience for Spectators
People do not need to participate in the festival to enjoy it.
Spectators can watch from the riverbanks and bridges as thousands of paddleboarders pass through the waterways.
The 2024 festival reportedly attracted around 100,000 spectators along the route.
For visitors to St. Petersburg, the event provides an unusual addition to the city’s traditional attractions. Instead of visiting only museums, palaces and churches, tourists can experience the city’s modern cultural life through a giant outdoor water celebration.
Safety and Responsible Participation
With thousands of people sharing narrow urban waterways, organisation and safety are extremely important.
The festival limits participation so that the waterways can be cleared within the scheduled timeframe. In 2025, registration closed after the participant limit of more than 10,000 was reached.
Participants also need to follow water-safety requirements and event instructions. Paddleboarding in a crowded urban waterway is very different from using a board on an open lake, so preparation and responsible behaviour are essential.
A New Kind of Urban Festival
Fontanka SUP demonstrates how a city can use its existing geography to create a completely different kind of public event.
St. Petersburg’s canals were not built as a festival venue, yet for one day they become the centre of a huge floating celebration.
The event combines several elements that normally exist separately:
Sport + tourism + art + costumes + music + community + city heritage
That combination is what gives Fontanka SUP its distinctive identity.
Conclusion
The St. Petersburg SUP Carnival has grown from a paddleboarding gathering into a spectacular international festival that brings thousands of people onto the city’s historic waterways.
The colourful scene shown in the newspaper image tells much of the story. Paddleboards cover the water, participants wear imaginative costumes and spectators gather around the historic city centre to watch the moving celebration.
The festival’s scale is impressive: the 2025 anniversary edition attracted around 10,000 participants from 270 cities and 13 countries, while earlier editions have also drawn enormous crowds.
But perhaps the most fascinating aspect is its simplicity. People take a board, dress creatively, gather with friends and paddle through one of the world’s most distinctive historic cities.
For a few hours, St. Petersburg’s rivers and canals become a colourful moving stage — proving that a city’s waterways can be more than transportation routes or scenic backdrops. They can also become the heart of a joyful, creative and unforgettable public celebration.
