Private parties are rare in Moscow. It doesn’t seem to be a tradition to invite friends and strangers into your home and party with them, as it is a custom in New York or some other cities. I have been on many house parties in NYC. Made many myself and my friends and I pride ourselves to have thrown the first real good party 6 weeks after 9/11. Its just what people needed that time. Oh well, our loft on La Guardia was pretty destroyed after it. Sometimes we had 6 to 8 parties to choose from a night and if one was lame, we just bought another six pack and moved on to the next one. I have seen many beautiful lofts and apartments during this period and I also met many very nice people and made good business contacts on these house parties. At the end of my NY time, we actually only went to clubs and bars during the week and to house parties on the weekend, since we always had a few private parties to choose from.
DJ Vinylkin worked the turntables
As I said, it’s rare to find this kind of party here in Moscow. Sure, there is the occasional birthday, which is celebrated in a café or restaurant. There are pre-parties, where you meet in someone’s apartment for a few drinks before you go clubbing. There are also boring Expat cocktail parties (oh, well, I guess after writing this, I will never be invited to one again), where you can meet people and make business connections, but there are next to no cool house parties NYC style. Philipp and Martin make their legendary BBQ roof party in the summer. Simone does the occasional art event in her apartment, which usually turns into a big party. Zak and Jabagh throw a loft party now and then, but these are the only real highlights of the Moscow nightlife, I’d say, and unfortunately they don’t happen often enough.
Zak and Jabagh just got a new studio loft and they organized this nice little Thursday evening party together with their friends Nikl and Blanche. DJ Vinylkin worked the turntables and did a great job, although the guy felt miserable. He spent last week up on some Caucasus mountain and was near to being snow blind when he arrived back in Moscow that day. He came back early, just to spin here. Red Bull and Russkie Standard provided the free booze. I actually planned not to drink anything anymore, since I have been on a Small World meeting before, which was at Skylounge and they offered free drinks. I also didn’t eat much all day, so I was planning on getting myself a water, when I went to the bar, but the bartender greeted me with a Vodka Red Bull. How could I turn down my favorite drink?
This video was taken at 3 AM. Just before the party was over. Sorry. Should have filmed the crowd earlier, but I have been busy with making small talk.
The audience was a great mix. There was anything from the real estate broker and CEO to the designer and artist. It’s a pleasure to see this, especially since creative and business go different ways (not only in Moscow, but especially here). I think it was about three a clock when we were nicely drunk from good spirits and we moved on to Propaganda. They had the 10th anniversary of the Thursday night party and it was another MUST go on my schedule that night. Well done party. Thanks to anyone who made this happen (also the sponsors). We need more of this in Moscow!
