Arwa Haider, Metro music editor: «I’d arrived in Moscow to take part in a British Council music presentation forum as part of the Afisha Picnic Music Festival (which I’d naively assumed would be a low-key event; it turned out to be 30,000-ish), and it was the most scorching summer that Russia had ever experienced: mostly about 38 degrees celsius, with gloopy melted puddles of tar on the pavements». Read more

This year, Afisha Picnic maintained the traditional four sections: music performances, play areas, designer market and food court. The musical highlights of Afisha Picnic included the terrific gig by Janelle Monae (US), rock legends Editors (UK) and Mumiy Troll (RUS), the hip-hop great Roots Manuva (UK), disco superstars Hercules and Love Affair (US), the British witties Metronomy, the gallery rappers Spank Rock (US) and the excellent psychedelic disco ensemble Music Go Music (US). Also the cutting edge of Russian music was broadly presented at Afisha Picnic: who could forget excellent shows by Narkotiki and Motorama.

New additions to the Afisha Picnic concept included the partisan stages which presented the best of Russian underground and experimental music, British Council Re-Sound  Forum where the masterminds behind the British music industry including John Dyer of Domino Records and Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian held meetings and open interviews. Then there was a stunning sport areas with parkour training grounds, longboard park and even a yacht jetty. A very popular venue was the real movie pavilion where visitors could shoot their own short films under the guidance of the new-school Russian directors like Pavel Bardin.

Watch live report by Russia Today in English:

After one month the Afisha Picnic team has already set to work on the next year event. The dates and details of Afisha Picnic 2011 will be released later.