Over 30 pancake chalets will open for the Moscow Maslenitsa festival

In all, over 30 venues selling pancakes and crepes will open in the city. Guests are invited to take part in culinary workshops, circle dances and the traditional Slavic entertainment of Pancake Week. The venues will be decorated with straw Maslenitsa effigies, an eight-meter-tall Maslenitsa ice figure and carousels with seats shaped like Dymkovo toys.

Pancakes from other countries: shrimp pancakes from China, orange crepes from France and squash pancakes Japanese style

Guests will not only be able to taste crepes and pancakes and learn their recipes, but also take part in classic Maslenitsa entertainment. Revolution Square will host a pancake shooting gallery, pancake Frisbee and pancake curling matches.

Culinary workshops will take place there as well, with classes in cooking buckwheat, chocolate, Guryev and even celery pancakes. Those who like sweet fillings will enjoy pancakes with peanut butter and chocolate ice cream, baked apples and caramelised milk, marshmallows and caramel. Cooking instructors will reveal crepe recipes from other countries: Chinese choux pastry pancakes with shrimp and tomato dressing, French crepes with oranges and raspberries, and Japanese style pancakes with squash and sesame.

Novy Arbat Street will host four festival venues and offer a more contemporary approach to Maslenitsa. Two-metre-tall puppets will be on display inspired by Russian avant-garde artists Kazimir Malevich, Varvara Stepanova, Aristarkh Lentulov and Wassily Kandinsky. Guests will be able to take selfies with each of the puppets.

The street will also be decorated with Maslenitsa figures, painted by artists in real time.

Tverskoi Boulevard entertainment: a wooden sleigh ramp and Kolobok-ball

Active leisure will be offered on Tverskoi Boulevard. Near the monument to Sergei Yesenin, a seven-metre-long wooden ramp will be installed. It will be shaped like a traditional Russian sleigh and painted like the famous Dymkovo toys.

Guests will also be invited to play Kolobok-ball, a Maslenitsa version of broomball (hockey with a broom). The game will be played with brooms and a small ball coloured to resemble the main character of the Kolobok fairy tale. Guests will be able to take part in another unusual activity, a race of rolling artificial cheese wheels, as well as to play a three-metre xylophone.

Wood carving and clay toys

Klimentovsky Pereulok will present the history and traditions of wood carving. On show will be carved window frames and wooden moldings from various Russian cities. Participants in creative workshops will draw and paint moldings, decorate gingerbread with icing and even grind flour. The activities will interest both adults and children. The Novopushkinsky public garden will host a small exhibition of traditional clay toys.

Winter vs. Spring

The decoration of the chalets will reflect the theme of seeing off the winter and welcoming the spring. For instance, Revolution Square will host the Winter Realm with an ice palace and blue pavilions. Manezhnaya Square will see the Spring Realm and red pavilions. On the last day of the festival, the giant Maslenitsa ice figure will be “burnt” here. The two seasons will meet on the way from Revolution Square to Manezhnaya Square: actors dressed in traditional Maslenitsa costumes together will guests will lure each other to the side of winter or spring, and ride carousels.

Source: mos.ru