Word of mouth: Moscow rap festival

The Russian capital is preparing to display its genuine involvement in international hip-hop culture, presenting the first Moscow International Rap Festival.

­On the first autumn weekend, the MIR Festival is going to turn Tushino airfield into the venue of choice for domestic and foreign hip-hop acts and streets culture performances.

Street culture with its music, outdoor activities such as streetball and parkour, and of course street art, is not so old in Russia. However over the past few years the community has grown many times over and is ready to show its powers.

A fair dozen top home-bred rappers, such as policy-oriented Noize MC, South Russian Kasta, Moscow-based Centr and many others are just the tip of this festival iceberg

To really impress the hip-hop community, MIR is bringing some Western rap heavyweights. The headliners are Busta Rhymes and Ice Cube, who were actually among the founding fathers of true hip-hop.

Apart from celebrity musical acts, the festival opens its doors for everybody else who feels part of the street culture community: Street dancers and graffiti artists, skateboarders and BMX bikers, DJs and beatboxers. Competitions and master-classes in these fields are part of the festival’s extensive program.

Entrance to the festival is free of charge, so to enjoy the event you just have to grab your friends and come to Moscow’s Tushino on September 3 and 4.

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