The 1st of May was an important date in the Soviet calendar, with each of the republics hosting May Day celebrations parades and festivities. In Pripyat, the newly built amusement park was due to open on May Day of that year. However, because of the nuclear disaster five days earlier on the 26th of April and the evacuation of the city on the 27th, the amusement park was never actually used. On May Day of 1986 Pripyat was already an abandoned city and its remains so today. This year, the amusement will be 31 year old, and the unused Ferris wheel, dodgems and swings continue to rust away.