Forums

Photo Gallery

Site map
Search
0The virtual community for English speaking expats and Russians
  Main page   Make it home    Expat list   Our partners     About the site   FAQ
Please log in:
login:
password:
To register  Forgotten your password?   
  Survival Guide   Calendars
  Phone Directory   Dining Out
  Employment   Going Out
  Real Estate   Children
     Saturday
     April 27
Arts Calendar
Culture Reviews
Win Free Tickets
TV Listings
 Culture Picks
Culture Picks
Afisha Picnic: Kasabian, Foals, Griby, Glintshake
July 29, 12:00
Kolomenskoye Museum and Park Kolomenskoye Museum and Park

The Afisha Picnic is a one-day music and lifestyle outdoor festival takes place every summer in Moscow, Russia, in the scenic area of Kolomenskoe, the former royal estate, which now is a historical, architectural and nature reserve museum. The Festival area of over than 1000 acres of land hosts the audience of approximately 50 000 visitors.

Since its debut in 2004, Afisha Picnic continues to lead the way as a pioneering festival offering a second to none programme of music and arts, leisure and lifestyle activities. Following the concept of a vibrant mix of a professional music festival, with performances of internationally acclaimed artists and distinguished talents coming from the local independent music scene, and a dynamic urban event, Afisha Picnic brings every fraction of the open air and entertainment activity together in one place, providing a very engaging and versatile surroundings for different audiences, either for individuals or families. International visitors are welcomed to the Afisha Picnic since the Festival site has a full English navigation and bilingual hotspots, which were first introduced in 2010.

The Festival offers all sorts of entertainment, including designers market and gastronomic area, special lectures and workshops, cinema and crafts, a full spectrum of amusements and sports, and, on one occasion, even a dance floor on the rollerdrome.

Over the past seven years, Afisha Picnic has seen performances from Mika, Pet Shop Boys, Franz Ferdinand, Editors, Madness, The Roots Manuva, Amanda Palmer, The Future Sound of London, Music Go Music, M83, Telepathe, Sons and Daughters, Buck 65, Metronomy, Fan Death, Beirut, Clinic, Mum, Junior Boys, Martina Topley-Bird, Hercules and Love Affair, Black Lips, Glass Candy, The Teenagers, These New Puritans to name just a few.

Music section features a whole bunch of super stars. On the 27th of July you need to be there because Kasabian, a band that needs no introduction, will be taking to the main stage. Other noteworthy names include English indie rockers Foals, one of the most interesting music formations in the post-Soviet space Griby and Glintshake, a young and promising indie rock band from Moscow. Also you will see A$AP Ferg (US)​, Hasky (Russia), Everything Everything (UK), Orlando Julius & the Heliocentrics (Nigeria), Great Revivers (Russia), Luna (Ukraine), Kito Jempere Band (Russia), Antokha MC (Russia) and Constantine (US).

The festival is organized by the Afisha Magazine, a major entertainment and listings biweekly.

Afisha Picnic Headliners:

Kasabian took the British press by storm in the early 2000s by mixing traces of the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, and Primal Scream with Oasis-sized confidence and DJ Shadow-influenced electronics. Named after Linda Kasabian, Charles Manson's getaway driver-turned-state witness, the Leicester-based group also stole a page from the Band by moving into a remote farmhouse to brew its music. Communal life and a slew of shared influences produced an electronic, rock-oriented sound that harked back to the Madchester days of baggy pants and druggy dancing. Kasabian expanded that sound on later albums, but the band's foundation remained rooted in swaggering, fragmented dance textures and boisterous rock & roll. With his acerbic approach to interviews, swaggering lead singer Tom Meighan quickly became a darling of the press during the band's infancy, and Kasabian's revolutionary logos and sleeve art only added to the excitement. Foldout poster sleeves, 10" versions, and hand-stenciled covers accompanied singles like "Club Foot," "L.S.F," and "Processed Beats." The hype paid off as Kasabian's self-titled debut cracked the Top Five in October 2004, just one month after its U.K. release. Four singles landed in the Top 20 within six months, establishing the bandmates as rock & roll royalty in the process. Founding guitarist Chris Karloff left the lineup two years later, citing creative differences with the remaining members. Kasabian's second album, Empire, had already been recorded, and guitarist Jay Mehler was brought aboard to replace Karloff during live performances. (Mehler eventually became an official member in 2008.) Empire was ultimately released in August 2006 and debuted atop the U.K. charts, with the title track soon becoming the band's third Top Ten hit. The band took home an NME Award in 2007 and began work on another album later that year. Dan the Automator was brought in to share production duties with Sergio Pizzorno, and the resulting U.K. chart-topper, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, appeared in 2009. Automator would return for the 2011 album Velociraptor!, featuring the lead single "Switchblade Smiles." In 2013, Mehler left the group and joined former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher in his group Beady Eye, but the band carried on as a four-piece and recorded a new album with Pizzorno in the producer's chair. Named after the album's total running time, 48:13 arrived in 2014, featuring the lead single "Eez-eh." In early 2017 the band issued a pair of brand new singles, "You're in Love with a Psycho" and "Are You Looking for Action," in anticipation of the release of their much-anticipated sixth studio album, For Crying Out Loud, which dropped later that May.

Foals was formed in Oxford, England, by longtime friends Yannis Philippakis (guitar) and Jack Bevan (drums), along with Andrew Mears on vocals, guitarist Jimmy Smith, and bassist Walter Gervers, Foals -- whose name is a play on the etymology of Philippakis' name -- began as a way to protest against the proggier sounds that were both popular in Oxford and in Philippakis and Bevan's former band, the Edmund Fitzgerald. After releasing the single "Try This on Your Piano" in 2006, Mears left Foals in order to more fully concentrate on his other group, Youthmovies (formerly Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies), and Philippakis -- who had lived until he was seven in a tiny Grecian village -- added the role of lead vocals to his guitar-playing duties. Edwin Congreave, a fellow Oxford student the frontman had met when they were both working at the same bar, and who introduced the group to techno, soon joined in on keyboards, despite the fact he had never played the instrument before -- nor ever been in a band -- and the full lineup of Foals was completed. The quintet worked on perfecting its poppy, jittery, upbeat, math rock/post-punk sound by playing house parties around the area, and soon the group was signed to Transgressive Records, which released the singles "Hummer" and "Mathletics" in April and August of 2007, respectively. Foals picked up quite a buzz in the U.K., and in June 2007 they went to New York to record their debut album under the guidance of producer and TV on the Radio guitarist Dave Sitek. The sessions went well, but the bandmembers ended up not being happy with the final mix, choosing instead to remix it themselves, and issuing the full-length, Antidotes -- which, incidentally, included neither "Hummer" nor "Mathletics" -- in March of 2008, while Sub Pop picked up the album in the U.S. and gave it an April release, adding the two neglected singles as bonus tracks. Two years later the band returned with its sophomore album, Total Life Forever, released by Transgressive Records. After having songs appear on shows like Entourage and Misfits, the band returned in early 2013 with its third album, the expansive and more balanced Holy Fire, Foals' first record to chart outside of Western Europe, cracking the Billboard 200 in the U.S. and topping the album chart in Australia. A concert DVD/Blu-ray, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, followed that fall, and picking up where Holy Fire left off, What Went Down arrived in the summer of 2015.

Griby. The most talked about of the 2017 UkrPop crop is a band called Griby, which translated as “mushrooms.” Griby is the brainchild of Yury Bardash, one of Ukraine’s most successful producers and the founder of the label Kruzheva. But the rest of the band’s members are anonymous, often performing in masks, or from under hats. Their style is equally difficult to pin down. In the words of Russian music critic Alexander Gorbachev, Griby “incorporate elements of Russian hip-hop and turns them into well-made house music.” Until recently, Griby were a little known group. “Today Griby has turned into an emotional phenomenon,” says Ukrainian music critic Andrei Nedashkovskiy, who likens the Russian-language band to the British 1998 group Gorillaz. Initially, Ukrainian fans were unhappy that Griby spent most of their time touring Russia, where their label Kruzheva organizes most of its concerts. But Griby is just as popular at home in Ukraine. Nedashkovskiy says that “almost half of Odessa” turned up at their recent concert in the Ukrainian port town. Yet it was their song Tayet Lyod (“The Ice is Melting”) that captivated the whole of Russia. Within days of release, Griby’s video gained millions of views on YouTube. By the end of the month, the number of views reached 50 million. Tayet Lyod has become a cultural phenomenon. Following the release, Russian social media has exploded with dozens of parodies of the song. The reworkings include Tajik street cleaners in Moscow, school children protesting corruption and, the most popular version produced by a late-night talk show, a professional weather forecaster singing about ice melting in the Urals. Griby’s image as 1990s "gopniks" (hoodlum) has only added to their success. The 90s, after all, are back in fashion in Russia — actively promoted by the country’s best known designer Gosha Rubchinsky, whose recent collaborations include Adidas and Vans. Griby is only one of dozens of Ukrainian bands that have recently made it in Russia. Other successes include Vremya i Steklo, produced by another Ukrainian heavyweight, Mozgi; Luna, a stylish Kiev band led by wife of Griby’s producer Kristina Bardash; and Quest Pistols Show, which combines a dance show with a pop band. “They have a distinctly new, progressive sound, which looks to Western analogues, such as Disclosure or Kendrick Lamar,” says Gorbachev.

Glintshake - a Russian rock band, that performs music in the genres of garage, indie, psychedelic and punk rock. The band was formed in the city of Moscow in 2012. The founders of the band are Ekaterina Shilonosova and Jenya Gorbunov. Their debut mini-album Freaky Man was written and recorded by Kate and Jenya. It was released in June 2012. The same year, in October, a video on the title track (Freaky Man) was presented, starring the artist Alexander Krivoshapkin. The complete line-up of the band had also been settled in October 2012: Dmitry Midborn joined the band as a bassist and Vasily Nikitin as a drummer. Each of the participants already had experience in musical projects: Shilonosova - in MAKE and NV , Gorbunov - in NRKTK and Stoned Boys , Midborn - in Tesla Boy and On-The-Go , Nikitin - in Foojitsu. The first gig of Glintshake took place in Kazan, November 17, 2012. In March 2013 the band released their second EP - Evil, and was invited to several major festivals in Moscow: Bosco Fresh Fest, Picnic "Afisha" and the "Faces & Laces". In August of the same year Glintshake were the opening act for The Smashing Pumpkins on the stage of "Stadium Live" in Moscow. The debut album Eyebones was released in May 2014. It was followed by a DIY­ video for the song Wiuwiuwiu, shot by the band members with an iPhone. The video includes animation and footages, which are recently used as visuals for the live performances. "Rock quartet Glintshake started with a few simple and fast songs in the spirit of the nineties slacking alternative – on the new album the band played harder and more inventive, because of what it's natural to compare them with Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Glintshake promise to make a "magic and hypnosis session", and thanks to their new songs it sounds very believable. The current Glintshake is not going to spare the listeners – they sound noisy, violent, but at the same time very beautiful" (Afisha). Early in 2015 the band re-recorded the song "Mu" from the Nano Banana EP, performed it in Russian. According to Shilonosova, the original English text a little overlap with Russian, because the song hasn't been translated, but re-written, however its meaning and general atmosphere have not been changed. Re-recorded "??" and new "New Year of Hate" were released in deluxe version of Nano Banana in June. In September, a clip on the song "Wrong Anthem" was released, created by illustrator Alexander Kostenko. At the same time the band announced, that "good old Glintshake is coming to an end, but new and evil one is starting off". In an interview with the website Furfur, Yevgeni Gorbunov said, that the band decided to withdraw from 90s alternative rock influence, stop singing in English and make a full turn in work. "…We've got a whole bunch of our own stuff: Zvuki Mu, russian avant-garde." In October, Glintshake released the first from the upcoming album song "Bez pyatnadtsati pyat" ("A Quarter to Five") and a clip on it, and next month they released the second song "Teni" ("Shadows").

A$AP Ferg. A founding member of Harlem's A$AP Mob (Always Strive and Prosper), A$AP Ferg was initially the group's main clothing designer, but after teaming with Mob member A$AP Rocky he became one of the crew's breakout rappers. While Ferg and Rocky were originally planned to be the crew's Mobb Deep-like duo, they found more success as solo artists, beginning with Rocky and his series of 2012 mixtapes. Ferg's big break came that same year when his track "Work" landed as the key cut on A$AP Mob's Lords Never Worry mixtape. The announcement that A$AP Ferg signed with RCA came in early 2013 and was followed by an all-star remix of "Work," with Trinidad James, French Montana, and ScHoolboy Q added to the cut. Ferg's "Persian Wine" single landed that same year, along with his solo album Trap Lord. His Ferg Forever mixtape dropped in 2014 and spawned the 2015 hit "Dope Walk." A year later his "New Level" single arrived featuring Future, along with his sophomore album, Always Strive and Prosper, which included guest shots from Missy Elliott, Chuck D, Skrillex, and Lil Uzi Vert. In 2017 Ferg teamed up with Remy Ma for the hard-hitting single "East Coast."

More info & Tickets

Copyright © The Moscow Expat Site, 1999-2024Editor  Sales  Webmaster +7 (495) 722-3802