The Nation's No. 1 Exhibition has created a holiday programme for International Women's Day. Themed events will run for the entire weekend, 6–8 March. Women of all ages visiting VDNH can enjoy a free guided tour, attend workshops, participate in dance events and receive gifts. People celebrating at home with their families may participate in the Exhibition's online activities.
'International Women's Day is a day for flowers, beauty and warm wishes. VDNH invites everyone for a wonderful weekend with your loved ones. Guests of the Exhibition will enjoy a rich cultural and entertainment programme: workshops, guided tours, lectures, concerts, shows and much more. All women visiting us on 8 March will be given a flower as a gift, as is tradition', commented Sergei Shogurov, JSC VDNH General Director.
Flowers, surprises and a dance marathon
Since the morning of 8 March, all female guests will be greeted with flowers near the Main Entrance arch and along the Central Alley. The All-Russian Everything for You, Our Beloved event will run from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
The first light of the spring sun has melted the iron hearts of the Robotstation dwellers. From 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on 8 March, the metal arm of the Fanuc robot will make cocktails for the ladies, and the Universal robot will hand out hard candy to girls.
The annual event by the Centre of National Equestrian Traditions will start at noon on the Square of Industry at VDNH. Two men on horseback will congratulate the female guests of the Exhibition for the upcoming holiday and offer them tulips.
The Latin American Dance Marathon will commence at noon at the House of Culture. Kirill Agishev, who holds a championship title in 10 different dances, will lead event participants in teaching new dance moves and improving their technique. Every hour of the event is dedicated to a particular style: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.—Cha-Cha-Cha, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.—Rhumba, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.—Kizomba. At 4:30 p.m., the professional dance group Dusha will perform for the guests. Participation is free of charge; however, advanced registration is required for each individual section of the marathon.
Themed tours
From 6 to 8 March, free sightseeing tours of the Exhibition grounds, Female Images of VDNH, will commence at 1:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Participants will learn about the 16 women of the legendary Friendship of the Peoples Fountain, the sculptures on Pavilion No. 18 (Republic of Belarus) and Pavilion No. 58 (Agriculture), actresses of Soviet cinema and much more interesting facts. Advanced online registration is required for tours.
From 6 to 8 March, the Your Woman Majesty tours will run at 2:00 p.m. from the Museum of Dolls. Tour guides will tell guests about which of Ivan the Terrible's wives could calm his wrath and which one inspired him to create the Oprichnina. They will also discuss the reasons why Ekaterina Alekseevna became the first recipient of the order for women; why they called Empress Katherine II 'the Russian Minerva'; how Natalia Golitsina became the prototype of Alexander Pushkin's The Queen of Spades and much more. Participation in the event is free. Admission to the museum requires a ticket. To register, call +7(985)420-81-55 or contact the museum's Instagram account.
From 6 to 8 March, free tours of VDNH Museum will be available at 6 p.m. These tours will cover the contributions made by women to the Nation's No.1 Exhibition. Sign up by following this link.
On 7 and 8 March, the Cosmonautics and Aviation Centre will offer free tours at 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.: Time of the First Ones. Stellar Women. Guests will learn about our female compatriots who dedicated their lives to space. Participants will discover why the first female astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova, was able to keep her ejector seat, as well as who the first open space welder was and many more interesting facts. Online registration is available on the Centre's website.
Two thematic tours will be available on 8 March in the Center for Slavic Writing Slovo. At 2 p.m., guests will learn about How fair maidens mastered literacy, writing 'text' messages on the bark of birch trees to their betrothed, as well as who introduced the letter Ё to the Russian alphabet and who brought the whole of Russia in to the school desk. At 7:00 p.m. the Word to the Women tour will start. Participants will learn about the role women played in the development of literacy and Russian literature, from birch bark letters to the founding of the Academy of Sciences and the elimination of illiteracy. You can join these activities for free, but register in advance.
Additionally, on 6 and 7 March, themed tours on The Oil Industry in the Hands of Women be available at Pavillion No. 25 (Oil)—the Interactive Training Centre. The guests of the Exhibit will learn about women's role in the oil industry: women are among its chemists, geologists and enterprise directors. Call for details and conditions of registration: +7(495)933-18-13.
Shows and Festivals
From 6–8 March, the Days of Spring thematic weekend will be held at the City Farm. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., two workshops will be available for the guests at the greenhouse: Postcard for the Fair Ladies and a Gift of Flowers. From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., the March Worries quest will be available near the stables: its young participants will help the hero to prepare for his meeting with Spring. The Farm will offer guided tours of its premises, commencing at 2 and 4 p.m. outside the main entrance. Here participants can learn fascinating facts about the farm's inhabitants.
From 6 to 8 March, the Spring Festival will be held at the Russia—My History Historical Park. The programme consists of master classes in floristry, watercolour painting and painting boxes, themed Women of the Romanov Family tours, film screenings and a festive We Have a Brother performance. The programme is available on the complex's website.
On 8 March, holiday events dedicated to the principal inhabitant of the world's ocean—The Little Mermaid—will be held at the Moskvarium at VDNH. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., a vibrant photo booth adorned in flowers and decorative shells will operate free of charge in front of the entrance to the Aquarium exposition. The young girls visiting the centre can also partake in fabulous face painting with sparkles free of charge between 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The visitors will also be able to attend creative workshops, an underwater Little Mermaid show at Aquarium No. 38 and a costumed Legend of the Ocean's Soul performance in the Deck Zone. Participation in activities is free; admission to the Aquarium exposition requires a ticket. The full programme is available on the Moskvarium website.
At 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. on 8 March, the VDNH Fairy Tale Theatre will offer its usual performance of Fairy Tale Number One. The Return, as well as a surprise in store for the girls and their mothers for this festive occasion. Learn more on the VDNH website.
At 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. on 8 March, the Museum of Cinema will offer themed tours on the Ariadnes of Russian Cinema and film screenings by Russian directors. Entrance to the exposition and exhibitions of the Museum of Cinema is free for women on 8 March. The full programme is available on the Museum's website.
Workshops and lectures
In anticipation of International Women's Day, TAKAPULTA Comics—a resident of Pavillion No. 47 (Park of Crafts)—will host a lecture at 1 p.m. on 6 March: Women in Comics. Illustrations and Real Life. The lecture will discuss the similarities and differences between heroines of illustrated stories. Female comic artists and their influence on the industry will make up another discussion topic. Admission is free.
Themed workshops and lectures will be held throughout 8 March on VDNH grounds.
The Honey House Workshop will open its doors from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. for candle-making classes and flower decoration classes.
Women and Space lecture will start at 6 p.m. at the Cosmonautics and Aviation Centre. The lecture will discuss the challenges women from different countries face during space flights, the details of Valentina Tereshkova's flight and Svetlana Savitskaya's flight and other interesting facts. Attendance is free by prior registration.
Literary Gazebo project will hold a meeting in the House of Culture from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Guests at the evening event will be able to not only listen to and read works of art but also discuss the creative directions of the authors of these works with other attendees. Attendance is free by prior registration.
Free thematic educational events will be held on the grounds of the Nation's No. 1 Exhibition within the framework of the project Knowledge. VDNH. There will also be concerts. All events planned for International Women's Day are listed on the special project's webpage on the exhibition's website: https://vdnh.ru/womens_day/.
Gastronomic gifts
On 8 March, Ottepel and Moscow Sky restaurants will offer all female visitors a complimentary dessert. The Fishing Village will introduce a new menu item: The Raspberry Dessert.
Online programme
At 12 p.m. on 8 March, the official Instagram account of VDNH will publish a Story: it will be a test concerning the history of International Women's Day with questions pertaining to world history and domestic history.
At 1:15 p.m., the Vkontakte page and Instagram account of the Beekeeping Ecocentre will publish a Floral Motifs soap-making workshop.
At 3 p.m., the official Vkontakte account of the VDNH will go live with footage from the Slovo Centre. There, Alexander Piperski, candidate of philological sciences, Russian linguist and science populariser, will give a lecture. He will discuss one of the most controversial aspects of the modern Russian language—the feminitives, words used to differentiate between female and male holders of certain professions, social statuses etc. The lector will discuss the history and the future of feminitives in the Russian language and how they hold up when examined from different linguistic standpoints.
At 5 p.m., the Museum of Cinema will hold a free online lecture: Women in Films by Women Directors. Nina Tsirkun, a film critic, will talk about women scriptwriters and women directors as well as the gender revolution in new Russian cinema. Advanced registration is required.
At 8 p.m., the official Odnoklassniki account of VDNH will go live from the greenhouse of Pavillion No. 14 with the ASET concert and a performance by the Electro Machine jazz-rock project. The repertoire of the ensemble includes original music and arrangements of famous jazz standards and global hits.
Museum of VDNH will expand the Mediateca with a selection of digitalised archival documents from the years 1975–1991 on this holiday occasion. Visitors to the digital gallery will learn about the biographies of the prominent women who worked at the Exhibition—their stories were traditionally covered on this day. They include the director of the Hydrometeorological Service pavilion, a press secretary of the Exhibition, a livestock technician at the Poultry pavilion, a guide, an engineer of the transport and expeditionary department and many other women whose line of work many consider unsuitable for women.