MOSCOW, May 20 (Itar-Tass) —— Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, like hundreds of thousands of other Muscovites participated in the Night at Museums programme and toured the exposition of the Museum of Moscow on the night of Sunday.
“The Night at Museum programme is successful and above all our expectations; we have hoped about half a million will join it,” he told reporters.
As of 23:00 Moscow time, 750,000 joined the programme, and to many museums people had to wait on long lines, thus the final number of visitors would be available later, he said.
The Mayor’s Office reported that in 2011, a similar programme attracted about 400,000.
The Night at Museum programme started on Saturday at 18:00 at 188 Moscow museums, parks, theatres, etc. Most of them closed their doors at midnight, but many continued working to late night.
The mayor liked the idea of the programme.
“This is a good tradition, which lets Muscovites learn more about Moscow, the country, and the culture, I believe those who joined the Night at Museum programme would go to museums more often, than they did before that,” he said.
Sobyanin said there was a certain advantage of the lines to many museums, as people had a chance to talk.
“They are not unhappy with the museums’ staff, as they come not only to visit museums, but to talk to other people, too,” he said.