“People have stopped being interested in this” – Kommersant FM

PR manager of the Mume restaurant Anastasia Chernova: “There will be no Old New Year, we will celebrate the holiday according to the Chinese calendar. People are no longer interested in this, because the festivities in winter are already long. Many people with their families celebrate the New Year in the old style, so many restaurants cancel this, but make some special offers, some extend the hangover brunch. You can’t sell any special program.”

Founder of the Meat & Fish restaurant chain Sergei Mironov: “Restaurants don’t do a program for the Old New Year. People get tired of the holidays, they can’t go out as much, and for them it’s already extra time. This time, the Old Style New Year fell on Saturday. On weekends there will generally be more people. Any holiday program is an expense, as is an additional menu. There is no urgent need for this.”

Co-owner of the restaurant holding Restart Vasilchuk Brothers Alexey Vasilchuk: “We celebrate the Old New Year at Birds and Ruski restaurants. We even have a concert program. New Year is celebrated in the old style in few places, it has always been like this.”

Restaurateur Alexander Sorkin: “The Old New Year is a bit of an emigrant holiday, which is celebrated much more vividly by the Russian diaspora abroad than in Moscow. I think December was wildly eventful, the public wants to relax a little. Last New Year was more depressing than the last, say, six months. We definitely didn’t do anything.”