April 1997 – Renaissance in Moscow

DJ Volodya:
«After Miles, in September 1996, I went straight off to Ibiza and was probably one of the first Russians there. During the Renaissance party at Pacha I experienced a genuine culture shock and immediately caught fire with the idea of putting on a Renaissance Party in Russia.
We decided to hold the Renaissance party on April 30, 1997, at the Kinocenter. That was our mistake. It didn't occur to anyone back then that April 30 is the day everyone leaves for their dacha, and that Moscow would be empty.
The sets were built, serious money was invested. A whole delegation arrived in Moscow, led by Danny Rampling, Dave Seaman, Renaissance owner Geoff Oakes, his wife, three dancers from Pacha and journalists from Mixmag. They, by the way, later wrote a most vile article, since they hadn't liked Moscow. Rampling was extremely surprised by the Nescafe billboards on Kutuzovsky, and made a long scene when he wasn't let into a restaurant in his sneakers. Even though we hosted them lavishly, everything was paid for, and they didn't spend a single kopeck of their own money in Moscow.
We drew about seven hundred people and lost money, though not much. I immediately recouped it by selling some foreign artist to a Moscow club, but we never worked with Renaissance again. I kept excellent relations with the label's owners, but for all commercial proposals they referred me to Gary Chaglasyan, who had by then begun running his own business with them».