Kiev Tales: Sunday on Kreschatyk

From Independence Square at one end down to the junction with Shevchenka at the other, the only traffic was either on foot, rollerskates or mini-bicycles. There were people dressed up as pandas and a man in the middle of the road flying a kite between the sixth and seventh lanes. At the bottom of the street Ghana were beating Algeria in a five-a-side football tournament while Slovakia waited to play the winners. People were using bus shelters as shade against the sun or taking their shoes off and walking through the fountain. There was a folk singer on one side of the street and a pop concert on the other, with a group looking suspiciously like Britain's 2007 Eurovision entry on the very same spot where, six years ago, the Orange Revolution made headlines all around the world.