Europe Summer 2017: Russia 4 – party time on Tverskaya

Moscow 870

     As I mentioned in a previous post, I was dismayed by the temporary structures erected in Red Square for the Moscow 870 Festival since they spoiled the view of Red Square. But on the flip side of the coin the festival was an animated and enjoyable event—it was like a huge birthday party. The main street in Moscow, a kind of Broadway, is called Tverskaya Street. It begins at the Kremlin and shoots off to the northwest for I don't know how far.

       On returning from a visit to the Kremlin we noticed a lot of activity putting up temporary structures all along the center of Tverskaya as far as the eye could see. They were setting up the street for a two-day event as part of the Mokscow 870 Festival celebrations. Of course, we determined to go and have a look the following day.

Tverskaya Street - Moscow 870 Festival

classical music concert

       There must have been hundreds of thousands of not over a million people milling along a kilometer or more of Tverskaya with all kinds of events and displays: concerts, games, interactive art activities for young and old, side shows, food kiosks, etc. It was just a kaleidoscope of color and sounds. The festival continued into its second day with just as many crowds of hundreds of thousands of people. Great fun!

wall climbing

kids painting with an overlay

kids using sculpting tools on a horse

children's ballet class?

side show featuring clowns

to everything there is a season . . .

not quite sure what the message is here . . .

yours truly

street singer - tenor

Soviet era ballet dancer Maya Plisetskaya

Ballet: The Swan, Maya Plisetskaya

geodesic dome food kiosk

tumble-a-whirl amusement ride

space vehicles including Sputnik - silver globe on the right

for the birds

      After we left Tverskaya we got conned on Kuznetsky Most (Street). We were walking back to our hotel on Kuznetsky and walked past three people (one male, two females) sitting on a bench who had several tame birds (pigeons and an owl). Road buddy, who is very fond of birds, wanted to have a closer look, so we approached. They turned out to be con artists. The male, pounced on us using the birds to fast talk us into posing for photos with the birds on our shoulders, head and arms--no mention of a price. Then the girls jumped in overwhelming us with birds all over the damned place and snap, snap, snapping photos with my camera faster than I can snap my fingers. By then we were getting suspicious, but too late (as is usually the case with a half-way decent scam). Then came the bill. We didn't have enough cash and had to argue and I finally told the guy to take it or leave it (I restrained myself from throwing it at him) and we angrily walked off (after recovering my camera of course). It was not a particularly edifying scene, but we did end up with a lot of bird pictures.