Almost one million visitors attended the Moscow Museum Night festival, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Over 180 museums, parks, theaters and other cultural spots in Moscow opened their doors to visitors on the night of May 19-20 without any admission fees. The Moscow event, held in the Russian capital annually since 2007, is part of an international museum festival hosted by over 40 cities worldwide.
“The Night at the Museum event has been a success. It has surpassed all our expectations as we believed that half a million people would visit the event,” Sobyanin said, adding that by 11: 00 p.m. Moscow time (7:00 p.m. GMT) on Saturday, 750,000 people had attended the festival compared with 400,000 visitors last year.
Sobyanin made the statement while visiting the Provision Warehouses historical building in Zubovsky Boulevard in downtown Moscow on Saturday night.
The Moscow mayor said there were long lines of people on Saturday night wishing to visit various cultural events and the final attendance figure would be announced later.
The Moscow mayor praised the annual Moscow Museum night event. “This is a good tradition, which enables Muscovites to learn about Moscow, about their country and culture. I believe people who have attended the Museum Night event will visit museums more frequently after that.”