Migz Festival

The MIGZ festival has brought in electronic musicians from all over Europe. They will perform at Krasny Oktyabr as well as nightclubs such as Solyanka.

With Moscow cutting back on City Day festivities, locals will have to rely much more on private organizers, and the third International Festival of Modern Music and Media Art, or MIGZ, provides a bumper feast of events Friday and Saturday at the former Krasny Oktyabr chocolate factory during the day and finishes off at night at a number of Moscow’s trendy clubs.

The festival brings together several elements of contemporary art, including a plethora of electronic music, video art, photography and performance events. The motto is to conduct a “successful experiment through sound and visual arts,” said festival spokesperson Ulyana Yena.

“This year MIGZ festival will be twice as long, twice as large, and we will have more electronic music and much more content, including eight lectures instead of three or four,” said the festival’s producer Alexandra Berkovich.

The festival’s hosts have not only invited established producers at the forefront of electronic music, but also several aspiring artists. Apart from techno and new disco, the event will feature experimental genres such as alternative hip-hop, IDM and glitch electronics.

“All year round, we search for new and bright artists around the globe — musicians, video and media artists — and have them perform at our festival,” Yena said. “Many Russian artists even prepare their work especially for MIGZ, as they realize this is the time and place to present something new and nonstandard.”

Some of the DJs and musicians scheduled to perform include Popnoname, Diskjokke and Mugwump, from Germany, Norway and Belgian, respectively. Some performances will take place at Krasny Oktyabr, while others will be at clubs Solyanka, Shanti, Dome and the Denis Simachev Bar.

Cinematic projects by Russian and international motion designers will be screened, as will as Jaco Van Dormael’s movie “Mr. Nobody.” “Ya-Khkha,” a film about the Leningrad underground of the 1980s, will be up on display.

A series of lectures will also be held on topics ranging from “Presence in Social Media: The Rules of Facebook for Beginners” to “Super Objects of the Universe: Explorations and Discoveries.”

Early bird tickets for the festival cost 500 rubles, and entry is 600 rubles if paid on the day. The tickets, however, do not guarantee entrance into the MIGZ nightclubs. So dress sharply to get past “face control.”