Russians are partying at underground festivals far from Moscow (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Summer in Russia is not only a season for escaping to dachas and barbecuing. It's a time boasting a massive variation of festivals in any field of art. The events have their local specialities and specific character. Here is a look at some events of this season.  

Archstoyanie: land-art festival in the biggest art park in Europe, 25-27 July

Each year famous architects and artists from all over the country converge on the natural reserve 3.5 hours from Moscow, creating unique and playful landscape sculptures in the vast territory of the Nikola-Lenivets (literally Nikola the Sloth) park in Kaluga Region.

Objects from natural materials such as wood and hay blend organically with fields and forests. The constructions are made to be interactive: you can jump on a bridge made like a trampoline, climb a wooden lighthouse overlooking the river Ugra, and enter the insides of almost any object.

The park is open year-round. During the festival, art and musical performances are placed inside the constructions. 

The first edition of the festival took place in 2006. It started as a small gathering for architects and their friends and transformed into a big event with 12 thousand visitors this year. The most interesting objects from each edition move into a permanent display. The site is huge, the biggest land-art park on the continent, boasting 1600-acres. When a new object is added on the map it does not clutter. It takes several days or visits to see them all.

This year’s new object is called a “forum banya”, banya being a type of Russian sauna. Guests could meditate and listen to lectures at the semi-translucent wooden structure resembling ancient ruins in a Slavic village theme. The columns are made of hazel, which grows wildly in the vicinity of Nikola-Lenivets.

Visitors stayed in tents on the territory, further integrating with the surroundings in the natural refuge. In the morning, there were lectures and art masterclasses. During the day you could explore the park and visit art performances, listen to a selected musical programme, and then dance to electronic music till dawn. 

Signal: one of the most important electronic music events in Russia, 15-19 August

Several weeks after Archstoyanie, it is the electronic music connoisseurs who descend on the Nikola-Lenivets park. The festival was created in 2017 by architect and electronic music enthusiast Sergey Fadeev.

The vast programme showcases the talents of the vibrant electronic music scene in Russia. It is music in the foreground of art interaction. The components of the festival are the visuals, and the theatrical and performance programme. 

One of the most interesting installations this year was The Curtain, a mirror-like canvas woven from 5,000 balloons, the height of a 16-storey building, changing shape under the influence of the wind.

There were more than 200 artists performing on eight stages, surrounded by nature. 

Prior to the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 and calls for a cultural boycott of Russia, there were more international names in the line-up. But despite the overwhelming pressure some foreigners didn’t cut ties with all things Russian. 

“Unlike politics, which is the mode of separation, I had chosen music, which is the mode of connection… I do not share the uniform hatred against any civil population, since I do not make the language of war the language I speak.” German DJ Atom™ who participated in Signal said in a statement posted on his website.

Bessonitsa: open-air festival of animation cartoons, 18-22 July

Bessonitsa, translated as Insomnia, is a one-of-a-kind festival of animation that has been going since 2013. The festival takes place far from big cities, with the organizers, participants and guests living in tents.

After dark, new and groundbreaking auteur animation films are projected on makeshift screens in nature. Everything is volunteer-based and the territory is decorated with paintings and sculptures. 

For four nights the organizers showed 200 of the best out of more than a thousand of films that were sent by animation directors from all over the world. During the day there are concerts, performances and lectures.

This year there were entrances from Lebanon, Germany, South Korea, UK, France, Sweden, Colombia, Japan and the Netherlands. 

The organizers have expanded their geography this year, with the festival's first international location opening in Belgrade, Serbia, on September 21.

Vyksa festival: steel factory town turned into modern art and culture hub

Vyksa was once a run-of-the-mill single industry town, with a metallurgical plant at the core. But for more than 13 years the provincial settlement has been hosting guests and art maestros from all over the country during a weekend in July, for the ‘Vyksa festival’. 

Every year residents in collaboration with famous artists, musicians, actors, directors put on a special programme highlighting a long history of the city and the stories of its inhabitants. 

Before Soviet times the town had one of the largest manor theaters. For one evening a so-called Ghost Theater was resurrected two centuries later on the grounds of the park. Locals listened to the opera. Soloists of the best musical theaters in Russia went on stage and a local Vyksa Choir joined them. 

Eleven children from Vyksa became co-authors of the theatrical procession dubbed “Or maybe it’s a dream?”. Hundreds of residents joined the procession, showcasing dream catchers and characters painted with white paint.

The Vyksa Steel Works, which employs a quarter of the local population, is also a unique Industrial Street Art Park. Each year, street artists from across Russia paint a mural on one of the walls of the plant. This year artists Vladimir Abikh and Artem Stefanov painted the words “Stronger than Steel”, which in Russian is also a pun that means “became stronger”. It spans 5.5 thousand squares, and was done using only brushes in around 30 days. 

Vyksa overall has more than 100 murals and objects by street art veterans. 

Thirty Vyksa residents, adults and children, together with the director Boris Pavlovich, invented cosmos-related characters and turned the local gymnasium building into a futuristic “Flying Institute.”