For the last couple of weeks, Krasnoyarsk has been actively preparing for the main winter celebration. Holiday trees are being decorated, ice and snow fortresses are being erected, and lights set up and turned on.

From December 23rd to 25th, ice towns will open in all districts of the city. From December 24th to 27th, the Krasnoyarsk Youth Theatre will host the first performance of "The Snow Queen" play for the city's best fourth-grade students. The city's main New Year's tree on Tatyshev Island will light up on December 26th.

2026 will begin with the X anniversary "Magic Ice of Siberia" Snow and Ice Sculpture Competition, which will be held from January 6 to 17. Sculptors from other cities across the country will participate in the youth competition, while the professional competition will feature masters from China, Belarus, Mongolia, and South Korea. For the first time in the history of the Festival, the snow sculptures will be displayed on the upper tier of Teatralnaya Square, allowing residents to examine each sculpture "in 3D". All cultural events of the Festival are also scheduled to take place there.

Ice sculptures will decorate the Central Embankment, along with 3 ice galleries: one featuring paintings by Valerian Sergin for his 90th birthday, another by Andrei Pozdeev for his 100th birthday, and the third one featuring paintings by Vasily Surikov.

The anniversary XX Winter Surikov Art Festival will take place from January 12th to 24th. In 2026, it will bring together dozens of events under the theme "Sons of the Siberian Land," offering a fresh perspective on the legacy of the great artist Vasily Surikov.

The main programme includes more than 40 events, including concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, guided tours, and educational activities.

The grand opening will be the highlight of the Festival, taking place on January 12 at the Small Concert Hall of the Regional Philharmonics. Among the performers are the Krasnoyarsk Brass Orchestra and very special guests Anastasia Lepeshinskaya, soloist of the "Novaya Opera" Theatre in Moscow, and Oleg Abramov, winner of international competitions and President of the Alexander III Foundation for the Support of Brass Instrument Performance.

The "Impasto" exhibition will open on the same day, January 12, at the V.I. Surikov Museum-Estate. It invites viewers to "enter" the paintings to explore the master's renowned impasto technique—his powerful, emotional brushstrokes that become the primary narrators of his stories. The exhibition will feature 10 paintings from the museum's collection.