Traditionally, the festival and the day of Saint Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, opens at 10 a.m. with the Divine Liturgy and the prayer in St. Sophia Cathedral and then at 12 a.m. a ceremony of the grand opening of the Slavic Literature and Culture celebration begins at the monument to the Millennium of Russia.
Representatives of the clergy and the literati, writers, schoolchildren of Veliky Novgorod take part in this festival. The programme includes concerts, film shows, conferences, literary soirees, exhibitions, which are devoted to the traditions of Slavonic culture and its history.
For the second time the Days of Slavic Literature and Culture will hold a concert of the children's choir of the Novgorod region, who will perform works by the Russian and Soviet composers. The choir consists of more than 200 participants.
Festival of book will take place as well. Publishing houses from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Pskov will take part in the book fair. Meetings with writers, “round tables”, cyclus of literary soirees will be held.