Afisha is a Russian entertainment and lifestyle website and formerly a magazine. The printed version was issued from April 1999 to December 2015 in two versions - for Moscow and other Russian cities. Readership of the magazine was about 1.5 million people. Since 2015 Afisha exists only online.
History
In April 1999, Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper teamed up with Andrew Paulson and Anton Kudryashov to found Afisha. The magazine had a profound effect on Moscow’s cultural and nightlife scene and broke new ground with its mix of informed commentary, listings and reviews. Originally, the magazine was published twice a month. Oskolkov-Tsentsiper brought together a team of young journalists, designers and photographers to create a unique Afisha style which had a major impact on Russian media. Many high-profile Russian artists made their first public appearances on Afisha's front cover and the magazine popularised several new fashion trends – even introducing numerous new words into the Russian lexicon, from “deadline” to “hipster”. Afisha remains Russia’s most popular lifestyle media brand with a monthly Internet audience of more than 4.5 million. While at Afisha Oskolkov-Tsentsiper also launched and managed such publications as Afisha-Mir, a glossy monthly travel magazine, Bolshoy Gorod, a city magazine, Afisha-Yeda, a cookery magazine and a series of Afisha guidebooks on various cities and countries. In the end of 2014, the paper versions of both magazines were closed down. In April 2013 the structure and design of the magazine was changed dramatically; were excluded schedules and reviews, which are now published only on the magazine's website and applications for mobile devices. In December 2015 the whole Afisha crew was fired. It was announced that the magazine will now be published four times per year. Since then Afisha printed no issues and is de facto closed. On 2 December 2016Filipp Bakhtin, the art director of the publishing house, announced the official closure of the print magazine.
Online
In 2013 Afisha launched daily updated sites "Vozduh", "Volna" and "Gorod", promptly telling about the latest developments in sphere of culture, music and life in Moscow, and "Serialy" - Russia's largest online tv series library. In December 2015 Afisha Daily was relaunched as web magazine.
Annually the magazine holds a music festival Afisha Picnic, a one-day outdoor festival held in Moscow, Russia every summer. It takes place on the territory of Kolomenskoye, a former tsar’s estate, now a state-owned historical, architectural and nature reserve museum, located only 10 km south-east of the city center. Since its start in 2004, the Afisha Picnic has followed the concept that mixes professional music festival featuring performances of international artists and local independent musicians, and urban-style event with all sorts of entertainment, such as designers’ market, gastronomic area, games and crafts, sports and amusements, lectures and workshops, and, on one occasion, even a dance floor on the rollerdrome. The festival is visited by 50,000 visitors that spread out over of land.
