Moscow starts celebrating New Year’s Eve early. The Moscow Times picked only the best parties, where you can dress up, listen to some great music or rave till the break of dawn.
VEU 2020: December 28
VEU stands for “Evening of Esthetic Joys” as it’s organized by a promo group called Esthetic Joys, responsible for one of the best summer festivals, Bosco Fresh. VEU will take place at one of Moscow’s signature turn-of-the-century hotels — the Metropol — in the very heart of the city. This year’s themes are “Home Alone” and “The Catcher in the Rye” and the line-up includes live performances on several dance floors of some of the city’s best DJs, including Digidon, Bejenec, Kovyazin D, i96y and many more.
Entrance: 3,000 rubles. Register here.
Rat King’s Ball at Flakon: December 28
Flakon promises to transform one of the buildings of a former factory, the “Cube” into a three-story fairytale castle for just one night. The theme is the famous story by Hoffmann and equally famous ballet by Tchaikovsky. The lineup for the night includes top DJs like Nikita Zabelin, Hodaque and Dive in Aspic.
Entrance: 800 rubles. Register here.
The Village New Year’s Party: December 31
The Village — one of the most popular Moscow media covering everything that goes on in the city from urban policies to new restaurant openings — is throwing its first ever New Year’s party. The venue is Basmanny Dvor (Courtyard), a brand new creative cluster not far from the Baumanskaya Metro station. The headliners are Bad Balance — the legendary 1990s band and pioneers of Russian hip hop — Kedr Livanskiy — the reigning queen of Russian electronic music and critical darlings Maiden Obey.
Entrance: 2,500 rubles before 1 a.m., after 1 a.m. 1,200 rubles with pre-booked tickets, 1,500 rubles at the door. Register here.
Mutabor Rave Marathon: December 31
Mutabor — this year’s spectacular comeback of Arma 17 team and Moscow’s new electro central — is organizing a record New Year’s rave marathon, starting on the night of December 31 and finishing on the afternoon of January 2 (!). The line-up looks like an electronic music festival of your dreams: Moodymann, Dopplereffekt, Vakula, Fred P, Nicolas Lutz, Rhadoo, Binh and Timur Basha.
Entrance: from 1,900 rubles. Register here.
