Two ice theaters were set up for the festival, one in Novopushkinsky Square and another in the GUM rink on Red Square. Here, you could see five-time US ice-dancing champion and two-time Four Continents Championship winner Peter Chernyshev perform in the Nutcracker, Swan lake, Cinderella, Snow White, and Cipollino, as well as the season premiere of the Frog Princess. Two-time Olympic champion, three-time world champion, and seven-time European champion Yevgeny Plushenko appeared in the Nutcracker, the Snow King, and Ice Kings.

The main theme of Journey to Christmas last year was theater, so the festival boasted a rich program of performances. In fact, about 1.4 million people attended them! Puppet theatres from all over Russia came to put on shows, while Russian and foreign theaters staged unforgettable street performances as part of the Golden Mask in the City project. There were also musicals from the Triumph production center, productions staged by Moscow creative teams, and, of course, festive holiday concerts. Meanwhile, actors from European street theaters strolled around Tverskaya Square entertaining visitors, along with Father Frost and the Snow Maiden.

None of our festivals are held without master classes! At last year’s festival, there were cooking classes where visitors learned to make traditional Christmas treats with ancient and modern Russian and European recipes, as well as creative lessons where participants were taught to make home decorations, theatrical scenery, and gifts, as well as to expertly wrap presents, assemble robots, master a variety of crafts, and draw.

For last year’s festival, the charity funds The Lighthouse, Life, I Am! Orbi, Russian Birch, Paw of Friendship, and others prepared a special program that anyone could participate in. In addition, festivalgoers gave New Year’s gifts to children in the N. F. Filatov city hospital.

For active visitors, a lot of games and sports events were organized at the festival. Guests could go snowboarding, participate in ‘snow shooting’, and play ‘merry hockey’ and other winter games. Curling proved to be the biggest hit of the sports program at a rink set up on Novy Arbat.