Cultural Programme

The 173-metre Cape Green, the highest in Murmansk, rises high above Semenovskoye Lake. At its summit is a memorial in honour of the ‘Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War’. This massive monument to the soldiers who stood up to invaders during the Great Patriotic War opened on 19 October 1974, on the 30th anniversary of the defeat of the fascist troops in the Arctic. The memorial was designed by architect Igor Pokrovsky and sculptor Isaak Brodsky. The funds to build the memorial were raised based on an initiative among the workers of the Rezets floating workshop.
Construction began on 17 October 1969 and lasted five years.
A 35.5-metre-tall Soviet soldier looks down on the city from a seven-metre-tall pedestal.
It is one of the tallest monuments in Russia. The sculpture of the Arctic defender is hollow inside, but its weight exceeds 5,000 tonnes. Murmansk residents have affectionately nicknamed the concrete giant Alyosha.

The Murmansk Regional Museum of Local Lore is the largest museum in the region and immerses visitors in the history and nature of the Kola Peninsula. In March 2025, the museum reopened its historic building following major renovations to present brand-new exhibits that combine modern technology and authentic historical artifacts.
What should guests expect?
• 14 thematic halls with exhibits about the Murmansk Region dating from ancient times to the present day
• Authentic items reflecting the richness of Arctic nature and culture
• New exhibits prepared according to contemporary museum standards that showcase the uniqueness of the Murmansk Region through the prism of history, ecology, and technology
The museum offers visitors both an educational and an inspiring experience that helps provide a better understanding of the past, present, and future of the Arctic. It’s the perfect place to feel a connection with the history of the region, which plays a key role in the development of Russia’s Arctic zone. The visit to the museum will be a vivid and memorable event for the Forum guests and will emphasize the Murmansk Region’s importance as a centre of Arctic culture and science.
The museum staff will conduct special tours for Forum guests every day at specific times. During normal working hours, you can explore the museum on your own or as part of sightseeing groups.
Don’t miss your chance to see the renovated museum – a place where history comes to life!

Present your participant badge at the museum’s box office to receive a discount.

Tours:
26 March 17:00
27 March 09:00
28 March 11:00

h2o +, ‘Art about Water and More...’
Exhibition of works from the collection of the Siyanie Contemporary Art Centre and works from the collections of Vladimir Nekrasov and Andrey Malakhov that are being donated to the Murmansk Regional Art Museum.

Present your participant badge at the museum’s box office to receive a discount.

There will be a twenty-five-metre tunnel on Ulitsa Vorovskovo with ice engravings dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the opening of the Northern Sea Route.
In addition to the exhibition, Forum guests can visit an ice bar at which Murmansk producers will present Arctic beverages.

Admission is free.

The fair will feature works by Arctic artisans, including unique souvenirs that tell the story of the Arctic expanses, original jewellery that preserves the light of the polar night, and housewares carved with love from local materials.
Visit the fair to not only buy some rare items, but to also immerse yourself in the atmosphere of a real northern fairy tale.

Admission is free.

The exposition ‘Business before Pleasure’ showcases the talents of craftsmen not only from the Murmansk Region (Murmansk, Nikel, Kandalaksha, and Olenegorsk), but also from other cities of Russia (Vologda, Cherepovets, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kargopol).
The exposition is divided into two main blocks:
• The first takes up most of the hall and mainly consists of utilitarian items or things that could be found in peasant homes and the daily activities of humans in the past, the main goal of which was to make life easier: a loom, spinning wheel, whorl, roller, smoother, saddle, heel, fishing pole, box, and kitchen utensils.
• The second part of the exhibition is noticeably smaller and focuses on objects that were used during times of inactivity, primarily by children – dibstones, rattles, horses, wooden birds, and trinkets.
Both themes are also deftly intertwined in additional sections of the exhibition, which are dedicated to weaving from roots and birch bark and painting on wood, as well as the art of weaving.

Present your participant badge at the museum’s box office to receive a discount.

The exhibition will include roughly 100 unique items from the collections of Kola Peninsula museums. It will depict certain aspects of the development of the Northern Sea Route and tell the stories behind the artists who celebrate the Arctic and who visited it for the first time during scientific expeditions to study the Arctic territories, sea routes, and the treasures of the ocean.
Phenomenon of ‘expeditionary fine art’
The ability to draw was one of the most important components of the expedition, since the expedition artists were the ones who recorded geographical sites with topographic accuracy and properly depicted the peoples who inhabit hard-to-reach territories and their way of life.

Present your participant badge at the box office to receive a free ticket.

The traditional Taste of the Arctic gastronomic festival will be held on Ulitsa Vorovskovo in Murmansk on 25–30 March 2025. A collaborative team of restaurateurs and chefs from the regions of Russia’s Arctic zone will present a menu of Arctic cuisine, which broadly consists of products from the northern seas and producers in the northern regions.
In 2025, more than 15 catering enterprises from Russia’s Arctic regions will take part in the gastronomic festival, which will also feature a fair of souvenirs from the Murmansk Region and the Taste the North ice bar.
During the festival, the office of the Murmansk Region’s Tourist Information Centre will be open for northerners and guests of the International Arctic Forum, where the city’s residents and guests will be able to learn about popular tourist programmes and purchase a Polar Explorer Passport.
The festival will also continue the highly popular Arctic Post tradition of guests sending their loved ones exclusive commemorative postcards from the Arctic.
There will also be entertainment and music programmes, prize draws, and much more.

Admission is free.

This immersive documentary audio reenactment tells about the events that occurred in Murmansk on 18 June 1942, when more than 12,000 bombs were dropped on Murmansk.
18 June is now celebrated as the Day of Fortitude and Courage of Murmansk Residents during the Great Patriotic War.
All Murmansk schoolchildren know that on this day the northern city was subjected to the most terrible bombing of all Great Patriotic War and completely burned down. But this is not actually the case; the city was not burned to the ground. Visitors will get a first-hand view of many of the things that the residents of frontline Murmansk saw on that terrible and heroic day.
The main characters of the performance are real people who will tell about how they personally survived the awful bombing of Murmansk on that fateful day, how they found and saved kids from a local kindergarten, how they took them to a safe place, and how mothers were looking for their children among the fires.
These heroes include Mikhail Zharnikov, a tower observer who was the first to see and notify the townspeople about the enemy air raid, Alexander Voronin, chief of staff of the Maritime Polar Air unit of Murmansk’s Kirovsky District (now the Oktyabrsky District), who helped rescue kids from the burning kindergarten, and Vasily Goltsov, the head of a freight yard at the Murmansk station, whose house burned down before his eyes, yet he remained at his post. There will also be many other people whose fates completely changed on 18 June 1942.

Present your participant badge at the museum’s box office to receive a discount.

Wearing headphones, Forum guests and young people from Murmansk will dance in complete silence to the sounds of their favourite music and songs performed by Arctic DJs.


Present your participant badge at the art centre’s box office to receive a discount.

Alexander Oleshko’s concert ‘Set the Mood’ features songs and funny stories from the artist's life, a wide-ranging repertoire of Soviet-era compositions and new songs from the 21st century, as well as tales, stories, and parodies about actors.
Get ready for two hours of pure joy, live music, as well as entertaining videos and backgrounds for each performance with minimalistic but effective decorations!

Present your participant badge at the art centre’s box office to receive a discount.