With an essential dress code of 80s and 90s sportswear, hundreds of Russian teen ravers are putting their western peers to shame
What do you know about Moscow nightlife? Well, there is one thing you definitely need to know: the energy of the new generation is rising to the surface, and their raves are different from the ones of their western peers. Photographer Sasha Mademuaselle provides a unique insight into the latest hit, the 90s-inspired party “Skotoboinya”.
“Skotoboinya” (Russian for “Slaughterhouse”) was created by promoters Kira Borisova and Viktor Eroshenko. Before that they were shaking up the city with VV17CHØU7 (“Withchout”), a witch house party where everybody would come wearing black and sportswear and dance to dark sound of trance samples and deep pulsing bass. Skotoboinya is inspired by gabber, a 90s techno genre which originated in Rotterdam, with an essential dress code of 80-90s tracksuits and trainers.
“The first thing you see as you enter the venue at both ‘Witchout’ and ‘Skotoboynia’ is a huge crowd of teenagers. It’s not 200-300 people, it’s dozens of hundreds of teens,” says Mademusalle. “The second thing which catches your eye is the outfits: at Witchout the kids are dressed in the latest trendy things from Palace, Supreme, Hood by Air and Gosha Rubchinskiy. And because of Skotoboynia there is probably not a single second hand store which is not sold out of Adidas tracksuits from the 80s and 90s – they also wear the coolest trainers from the latest collaborations. At ‘Skotoboinya’ lots of kids have their first drug or alcohol experience and it can be rather hilarious. My favourite thing about the party is when you show a ticket from any other Russian town and city proving that you’ve come especially for the party, you can come in for free”.
The scene Mademusalle captured is impressive: huge dance floors, fresh faces, colourful windbreakers and general aura of disorder and chaos. The main audience of the party are kids from 15 to 20, and they party like the morning will never come. On the other hand, they are excellent at dressing up, and channel all the heritage of past raves they’ve absorbed through the internet. “The atmosphere at these parties is really wild,” Mademusalle adds. “The kids are trying to imitate the raves they’ve seen on digitised 90s VHS tapes but there is still this feeling that it’s a rave-themed dress up party.”
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