Maslenitsa in Moscow

Maslenitsa, the festive week before Lent in Russia, runs from February 20 to 26 this year. It also marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The Moscow city streets and parks will be full of activities, including games, theatre and music performances, carnivals, historical re-enactments, master classes, and of course, lots of pancakes.

The festival will take place at the following locations in the centre of Moscow:

Manezhnaya Ploshad hosts a Spring Kingdom offering guests historical re-enactments, folk music, ribbon and flag shows, a climb-the-pole game with prizes, and cooking master classes. There will be pancakes, tea, and souvenirs from all over Russia. The square is decorated with an eight-meter ice sculpture of King Maslenitsa.

Ploshad Revolutsii. The Winter Kingdom. Here you can take a photo with the Winter Guards on an ice throne in the big Ice Fortress, play folk games, and slide down the ice slope. There are minstrels, street theatres, music and dance bands, and a workshop offering arts and crafts lessons. A big winter battle including the storming of the fortress will take place on February 26, Shrove Sunday.

Tverskaya Ploshad hosts folk music, ice slides, games, creative master classes for kids and adults, and there are also market stalls offering delicious pancakes.

Novopushkinsky Garden hosts a pancake school and cheese factory for kids and adults, an exhibition of clay toys, theatre performances, fire shows, magic carnivals, and dancing flash mobs.

Tverskoy Boulevard offers three festival venues: near the store Armenia, near the monument to Sergey Esenin, and near the Timiryazev monument. Here you can take part in winter sports battles, enjoy a cheese relay race, or play kolobok-ball, croquet, and basketball. You can also paint a Dymkovo toy in the Clay Workshop, and make traditional dolls in the Dolls’ House. Carnival parades take place each day of the festival. Those who like taking selfies will love the 100-meter light tunnel!

Novy Arbat has been transformed into a Modern Arts Centre with areas dedicated to Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Aristarkh Lentulov, and Varvara Stepanova. The street features designer scarecrows, ‘Feed the Horse with an Apple’ art objects, and a Russian avant-garde exhibition. The Big Maslenitsa carnival takes place on the weekend, as well as folk concerts, and carnival costume master classes. The festival venues are located near 13, 15, 19, and 21 Novy Arbat.

Klimentovsky Pereulok features Ivan Khafizov’s photo exhibition ‘Carved Wooden Window Casings’. The author will also give talks on the history of Russian window casings (nalichniki). Anyone interested has the opportunity to paint nalichniki, grind flour, and decorate gingerbread.

For more details, please see the news on the Moscow Government website.

Folk Maslenitsa festivals will take place at Kolomenskoe, Izmailovo, Lyublino, and Tsaritsyno estates, at the Izmailovsky Kremlin and also at VDNH.

Eighteen Moscow parks are also offering festival programmes, including Gorky Park, Sokolniki, Kuzminki, Fili, Izmailovsky, Hermitage Garden, Bauman Garden, Krasnaya Presnya Park, Babushkinsky, Lianozovsky, Artem Borovik Park, Sadovniki, Perovsky, Tagansky, Vorontsovsky, Goncharovsky, Severnoe Tushino Park, and Park Pobedy on Poklonnaya Gora.

On February 25, from noon to 8 pm, 16 cooks will prepare several thousand pancakes at Muzeon Park in an attempt to break the current Guinness Record. The festival will also feature pancake games, competitions, and quizzes with prizes.

Also – don’t forget to participate in Charity Maslenitsa at HSE!