Light shows for New Year, Christmas and the Earth to take place on Manezhnaya Square

Manezhnaya Square will host a series of exciting light shows dedicated to the Year of the Environment as well as the upcoming holidays, Christmas and New Year. The shows will take place every day from 11 December through 10 January. Each will last two hours: from 8 pm to 10 pm.

Light projections with music will transform the Manezh into the Milky Way with the Earth, the residence of Father Christmas with fairy tale characters or into a Christmas theatre under angels’ wings. The tempo of the music will change to match changing images.

“This bright multimedia show has three parts. The first is dedicated to the Earth, and the second and the third to Christmas and New Year. It will be possible to see the light show from anywhere on the square,” said Nikolai Gulyayev, Head of the Moscow Department of Sport and Tourism.

Golem will be the central character in the light shows. A golem is a mythical being that embodies everything that is created by humans rather than nature. This is a collective image of all technology advancements, which were supposed to enslave nature and make human life easier. However, centuries of careless nature management eventually resulted in golem becoming a self-devouring and destructive power. Yet nature can confront it through a rebirth. The light shows will illustrate how threatening human activity can be for the planet, but also see how beautiful nature’s rebirth is. Flowers will bloom, fruit will ripen, ice will melt and waterfalls will flow on the façade of Manezh.

Another holiday light show story is dedicated to the mysterious house of Father Frost, which is in fact a fantasy factory on the North Pole, whose main task is to fulfill every child’s wish. A colourful 10 minute video has 13 stages. The fairytale story shows how presents appear on New Year’s Eve. Fantastic creatures, which help Father Frost turn children’s dreams into presents, live at the residence.

The light show will conclude with the Christmas story and traditions connected with it. First, there will be a starry sky with an image of the Virgin Mary and a shiny sunrise symbolising the birth of Christ. The show’s director decided not to use canonic images of Biblical characters portraying them instead in a simpler style, something between early Christian frescoes and children’s drawings.

After that, the building will be transformed into a village street with people in costumes going from house to house and singing Christmas carols, then into the Star of Bethlehem appearing from a snowflake, or into Christmas decorations. For a few seconds, Manezh will be covered with angels’ wings.

Spectacular light shows on the façades of Moscow buildings are a traditional sight for city holidays. In September, the Circle of Light International Festival takes place in Moscow. This year, it took place for the seventh time. Over five days, everyone enjoyed an unusual architectural video mapping at seven city venues. Ostankino TV Tower turned into the Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Empire State Building in New York.

The Journey to Christmas Festival will take place in Moscow from 22 December through 14 January. Boulevards, squares and walkways will morph into theatre stages. Shows, performances, concerts and workshops will take place non-stop every day from 10 am to 11 pm and 10 am – 3 am on 31 December. Tverskaya Street, Red Square, Manezhnaya, Tverskaya and Revolutsii squares as well as Rozhdestvenka Street, Tverskoy and Gogolevsky boulevards and Klimentovsky and Novopuskinsky parks will be the main festival venues. For the first time, a festival programme will be held on the renovated Garden Ring.