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mlars · Just Starting Joined: 16 Nov 2007 Posts: 4 Location: u.s.

We are set to be in Moscow on the the 30th. I am hoping to see the New Years in Red Square. Does anyone know if there is anything great planned or things I can see. I know they celebrate there every year. Is the anything Else going on ! Special concerts or clubs with Russia pop stars etc...???
Please feed me with all info !
Thanks,
Mark U.S.

RusskiCanadian23 · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:06 am Post subject:

Red Square New Year usually looks something like this.

RusskiCanadian23 · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:08 am Post subject:

RusskiCanadian23 · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:16 am Post subject:

And this is another difference between Russia and the West. The Western Christmas is all Religious, the Day when Jesus was born, blah, blah, blah. The Russian New Year, is just one big partay, where the people just let themselves go after a year of hard work.

RusskiCanadian23 · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:20 am Post subject: Re: New Years Red Square 2008 ?

surfguy · Lounge Wizard Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 6979

Yes Moscow would be something to see on New Years...they always show it on TV here and looks awesome!!!

greg222 · VIP Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 599

I only went to Red Square once for New Years. Get there early - when I arrived around 10pm I couldn't get anywhere near Red Square itself - had to console myself with Manezhnaya Ploshchad. Prepare yourself for security checks, lots of drunkenness and firecrackers being let off all around you - possibly even shot into you. It's definitely a worthwhile experience but I don't think I'd do it again...

overseas_expat · VIP Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 741 Location: Moscow

I don't want to be the party pooper who rains on your New Year's Eve festivities.....but Moscow has changed in the last few years. The Red Square *party* is less fun than a short trip to Siberia.

Everything on all the streets, for maybe a 10 to 15 block radius, gets picked up. No snack kiosks, no beer vendors, no nothing. All the side streets are barricaded and police patrolled. All the productis and markets inside the Metro circle line are prohibited from selling any kind of alcoholic beverage including beer. That's a damn big area.

Then to get to the ahem, festivities.....you can only enter the downtown area from a few very heavily policed entrances. Pushkin Square, Lubyanka, Manege. You will go through metal detectors and pat downs that are stretched across the street. No bottles no alcohol allowed. All bags, purses, backpacks are searched. These security checpoints are set up about every 2-3 blocks. You must go through them repeatedly.

Until you get to the biggie security checkpoint at the entrance to Red Square. There, the checkpoint narrows and it takes forever to get through. An even bigger more powerful set of metal detectors to walk through. Body pat. Bag search. After about 10 PM they stop letting people into Red Square at all. But if you do get in you can look forward to milling around for a couple of hours in the cold with no beer, no food, and no toilet while watching a kitschy nostalgic Russian Father Frost video set up in front of the GUM. That's it. The whole enchilada. Inside the outer secured areas there are a couple of live music stages set up.

Dare I say this is the most fun-free event you will ever freeze through?

And how do I know all this? Think

Because I've done it? Ya think?
Won't be doing it ever again I can assure you.

The first year we went to Red Sq. for New Year was 2003. It was a helluva party. There was only one security check and that was right in front of the Kremlin. Upon leaving, downtown Moscow was a foot deep in broken champagne bottles all the way to the Garden Ring road, Drunks everywhere and mayhem. Great stuff, good times.

It has never happened again. They have since instituted these new security procedures and dried up all the booze within 2 miles of downtown for every event they hold. And it sucks big time. It's a total bust. Complete waste of time. I 100% guarantee that the scenario I described in the first four paragraphs is exactly what you will find.

Find something else more fun to do. We will.

Oh, did I mention that OMON gets called out for festival security? Shocked

Not your standard everyday militsia, but OMON.
I like to stay as far away from those guys as my little feet will carry me.

surfguy · Lounge Wizard Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 6979

Ok the hell with Moscow on New Years...I've had good times in San Francisco...maybe Sydney gets wild...Aussies love to party it up. But this year I will be in Odessa

RusskiCanadian23 · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:01 am Post subject:

surfguy · Lounge Wizard Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 6979

Whoa...look out

RusskiCanadian23 · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:28 am Post subject:

OMON standing guard near the Kremlin.

StephenB. · VIP Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 807

overseas_expat · VIP Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 741 Location: Moscow

Crapola, OMON freaks me out. If I see more than 2 or 3 of those guys in one place I'm heading out in another direction pronto.

You've heard the phrase about "shoot first and ask questions later"?

To the best of my knowledge OMON isn't required to ask questions. Ever.

Those guys will definititely send a chill up your spine. And put your party out like match in a bucket of water.

surfguy · Lounge Wizard Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 6979

Yep Russia is a police state

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