The first festival of eco-tourism "Celebrated step" was held in Rostov Oblast.

      In October 2013 the regional festival of eco-tourism "Celebrated Steppe" took place in Orlovsky district of Rostov Oblast. It was held in the framework of "Wildlife of the Steppe" association’s project "Volunteering Vector – a healthy environment".

      Eco-tourism is being developed rapidly nowadays. The festival participants got acquainted with flora and fauna of the single steppe reserve in European part of Russia, also they learned about rare animals and watched autumn migratory passage of cranes. The festival took place on two stages – theoretical and practical. Schoolchildren, students and all interested participants of the festival learned how to plant tulips, attended outdoors drawing lessons and master classes on making useful things from waste, took part in geobiotic examination of one of the sections of reserved steppe and counted birds flying off to warmer climes. Festival guests also visited birds of prey rehabilitation center and crossed to the Vodny island, a part of the Rostov Nature Reserve that is made up of four separate territories running west to east in the Orlovsky and Remontny districts of Rostov Province in southwestern Russia  and is a home to a unique herd of wild mustangs.