As summer rolls into the city, four local clubs are joining forces to organize St Petersburg's first International Club Festival, which will be held at the Ten Club on Thursday.
The 12-hour festival will be linked to an international political rally in Moscow on June 10 protesting against the war in Chechnya and compulsory military service.
Before appearing at the Moscow event, several groups from Germany, Switzerland and Holland will visit St Petersburg to perform alongside local bands in the Ten Club's spacious main hall, specially opened for the occasion.
Organizers said that the Western acts, such as Ganja, Moorpaul and TTC, from Germany, Holland's Diarabanto Negro and Switzerland's Gurk, were expected to play predominantly hardcore sets, while local participants would offer a wider range of musical styles.
The latter include Korol I Shut (translated as "the King and the Fool"), one of the city's most creative bands, which burst on to the local music scene last year.
Korol's fun-permeated performances and well-rounded songs --each one telling its own story -- have set them apart from St Petersburg's other punk groups.
Jugendstil were also invited to take part in the event. If the acclaimed band does show up, this will be its first performance in the last six months. But, failing that, fans will have a chance to catch them at the TaMtAm Club on Saturday.
The festival has been organized by the Ten Club, Fish Fabrique, Gora and the TaMtAm Club. On the following day, the participants will perform at other club's across the city including the TaMtAm. Tickets are available in advance from local music clubs and specialist rock shops but will also be sold at the door.
Meanwhile, Fish Fabrique, located at the notorious Pushkinskaya 10 hangout and without doubt the trendiest venue in the city, has reopened after a two-month hiatus.
Organizers said they were not as yet planning any thematic events, which have always been the club's trademark, but afficionados can still relax there in the company of artists and musicians six days a week.
Fish Fabrique's closest competitor, Kirill Miller's Art Clinic, is currently experimenting with its schedule.
"Now it's summer, and people tend to go to the countryside over the weekend," explained Miller.
The club will now open on Wednesdays or Thursdays, rather than on Saturdays, while the art gallery will stick to its normal opening hours.
For the next couple of weeks, Miller will continue to exhibit a series of his paintings from the last two years entitled, "The Chronicle of the Great Degradation."