Tsaritsa Meadow, have recently been instituted here. The chief of police, adjutant general F. F. Trepov, is responsible for this noble business. Tents, carousels, swings are built, poles are erected, a folk theatre, or rather a stage for it, is set up. The spectators are placed standing in the open air. Barrels are sent from breweries. A German sausage maker stands nearby and offers hot sausages at bargain prices. Theatre lovers are crowded in front of the stage for a long time and await the performance of "Filatka and Miroshka". The farce is played briskly... The artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky recalled visiting a fair on the field when a child:Approaching the Field of Mars, where the booths stood, already from the Chain Bridge and even earlier, from Panteleimonovskaya, I heard the shaking of the human rumble and a whole sea of sounds - horns, and the squeak of whistles, and the mournful sound of the street-organ, the accordion, and the banging of tambourines, and individual cries — all this drew me on, and with all my strength I hurried my nanny to get there as quickly as possible. The booths could already be seen behind the bare trees of the Summer Garden - these tall yellow plank stands stretched in two rows along the entire Field of Mars, and on all of them tricolour flags flew, and behind the booths there were spinning swings and ice mountains, also with flags at the top. Prior to 1872 Admiralteyskaya Square had also been used as a venue for festivals, but the laying out of the Alexander Garden meant that there was no space for the booths, and the Field of Mars became the sole venue in the city. As well as entertainments, sports competitions were also held, with activities such as climbing a greasy pole, and walking on a spinning log. In 1867, concerned about the high levels of drunkenness in the city, authorities placed restrictions on the sale of alcohol during public holidays. In August 1867 some 100,000 people gathered on the Field of Mars, without a single arrest for drunkness. In 1892 a 12-year-old received a set of china for winning the spinning log competition. Festivals were held on the occasions of the parades of the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky Regiments from 1897, until 1907 when festivals on the Field of Mars were banned. It was around this time that a tower