When the Gora (Mountain) Club re-opened after a four-month absence from the club scene to celebrate April Fool's Day, hundreds of people flooded Ligovsky Prospect.
The club's management had anticipated up to 700 people, but weren't quite prepared for the 2,000 people that mobbed the run-down yellow building that houses the club.
To celebrate, the club put on an 11-hour rock festival. The festival featured about 20 acts, including St Petersburg jazz bands Tequilajazzz and Chufella Marzufella. Amazing, considering the club doesn't even advertise its presence with so much as a sign. And yet, this lack of advertising is quite deliberate since Gora, like almost every music club in the city, operates in the twilight zone of semi-legality.
The club operates according to rather dubious unwritten agreements with "authorities" on diverse levels. The club's director, Alexander Fomin, who also plays drums with the band SS 20, hopes that soon he'll be able to get a proper license for the club. This is the only available path since the club, which first opened on July 9, 1994, must be seen to be doing the right thing in the eyes of the authorities, Mr Fomin believes.
The history of the club's building is as fascinating as it is long. The owners have spent a pretty penny renovating Gora's historic facade, which is a listed building.
It was built in 1915 as the "Pcholka" (Little Bee) movie theater, later to be renamed "Nord" and finally renamed yet again "Sever" (North). Over the past four months Gora has been given a face lift and the club's interior fixed up. The management has also started a special school for DJs and musicians and now the club's bosses want to develop the premises into a kind of "Philharmonic Hall of Contemporary Music." Their aim is that all the individual music genres, from grunge-rock to jazz and classical, will peacefully coexist here.
In the near future we can expect two new clubs to open up on the premises. One, called "Nora" (Burrow), will concentrate on hip hop and other modern dance music while the other -- "Dyra" (Hole) -- will specialize in jazz.
The Philharmonic Hall of Contemporary Music is planned to be launched in August.
And since Gora has no problems with the police, this joint offers a fun and stress free night out!