Ex. 1 Read the text. The Culture Clash festival, hosted by The Moscow News with the help of our partners at the Bauman Garden

The Culture Clash festival, hosted by The Moscow News with the help of our partners at the Bauman Garden, Goodman Steak House, 105.2 Moscow FM, Formula Kino and Moscow Interacts, was an exercise in true diversity: there was sun and rain, there were hipsters and old folks, American food and the traditional Russian game of gorodki, not to mention Indie rock and an international crowd. While teams competed for the coveted gorodki trophy, a design market provided a mix of vintage Soviet greeting cards and exquisite wooden iPhone cases. For the intellectuals in the crowd, there was a book-swapping stand and an exhibition of old-school Moscow News covers, while dedicated carnivores chowed down in a steak-eating contest.

The festivities started out with a BBQ master class with Goodman Steak House Brand Chef PavelGalkovsky. Shortly after medieval Russian folk group “VedanKolod (Slavic Folk)” finished their set of original songs based on Old Russian language and authentic and folklore songs of the Siberian people, myths and legends of Western Russia, a couple raindrops quickly multiplied into a torrential downpour. While people crowded under the shelter of trees, umbrellas, and hammocks the stage crew worked swiftly to keep the stage roof from caving in under the weight of the quickly accumulating water.

The shower ran its course and after completely swapping out the damp electrical equipment for dry replacements the festivities resumed with a steak eating contest and the unique talents of overtone singer and Jew’s harp player CheineshBaitushkina.

The party concluded with Indie Rock group “Far Cities” serenading the crowd as ominous dark clouds rolled in. A strong gust of wind stole the last few notes and ripped balloons from their tethers sending them soaring up into the dark stormy skies.

Although the erratic weather prematurely thinned the crowd, by the end, Culture Clash emerged as a celebration of all that is weird and wonderful about both the newspaper and our readers, and as a reminder that the Soviet-era notion of “friendship of nations” can be both viable and fun.