March 1992 – The Minkult Party

Oleg Tsodikov:
«In March 1992, Lesha Haas and I threw a remarkable party, «Minkult», in an old mansion. It was, perhaps, the first club carnival in Moscow. A lot of things were mixed in there – techno, and stage sets, and paintings. In the end it came out as a hybrid of a rave and an art gallery. What's more, people accepted the rules of the game fairly quickly, and practically everyone came in carnival costumes. Back then the crowd generally treated the laws of this genre with great respect, and gladly dressed up for parties, trying to look beautiful.
We asked the artists from the group «Art Blya» to make the sets for «Minkult» and gave them complete freedom of action. We saw the result only a day before the party and, honestly speaking, were horrified by all of it. We tore it all down and, in the end, did everything ourselves, spending some twenty hours on it.
But, in the end, it all turned out really rather beautiful. At the entrance, guests were met by young people in «Minkult» T-shirts. Beyond that they entered a whirl of light, sound, laser effects, shiny surfaces…
On the ground floor there was a dancefloor with a stage and an invited opera singer, a People's Artist of Russia. She refused the microphone, and when at some point she burst into song, only a couple of people standing nearby heard the singing. She was offended, of course, and left.
I distinctly remember that Groove played at this party. Back then he wasn't a star and had just arrived in Moscow from Piter. But he already had a reputation as a true devotee of his craft. At «Minkult» he played the proper, hard music that was atypical for clubs. People took to it very well. Back then no one was afraid of experiments or expected familiar tunes from a DJ.
For me it was the first experience of organizing. Before that I was simply a good comrade to my comrades».