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As an orchestra belted out the Ode to Joy and a ceremonial ribbon was cut to loud applause, the biggest shopping mall in Europe was declared open in Moscow.
Aviapark covers the equivalent of 36 football pitches and when operating at full capacity will have 80 restaurants, a 17-screen cinema with seating for 4,000 people, and more than 500 shops selling everything from designer shoes to iPads.
But amid the pomp and ceremony of the grand opening, there was a sizeable unspoken worry: the plummeting rouble and increasingly treacherous economic situation in Russia.
The currency hit lows against the US dollar on Friday - and fears are growing of a major economic slowdown.
Construction on the shopping mall in northern Moscow began in 2012, when things looked much rosier for the Russian economy.
It has been built on a spot where Catherine the Great built a tent city to celebrate Russia taking control of Crimea from the Ottoman Empire in the 1770s. Centuries later, the costs of Russia again taking over Crimea have combined with falling oil prices to push the rouble down.
At the opening on Friday, the focus was on the celebratory - and little mention of the economic situation.
"Two years ago there was only mud here, and today we are opening the largest shopping mall in Europe," said Franco Tollardo, chief operating officer of Aviapark.

But the deteriorating economic situation was impossible to ignore completely.
"Of course against the devaluation of the rouble, we have no power - we wish we could affect it," Tollardo conceded. "The next year will be difficult for everybody, but we consider this to be a temporary slowdown of the Russian economy and we still believe that Russia has one of the highest growth potentials in the world."
For most Russians, whose salaries are denominated in roubles, imports are becoming ever more expensive. Apple raised official Russian prices of its mobile phones and computers by up to 25 per cent last week to keep up with the plummeting currency, while clothes and food are also increasing in price.
The weak rouble has substantially lowered demand for imported goods - but the benefit for home producers is limited because Russia simply does not make much. The country imports more than a third of its food supply, says Chris Weafer, senior partner at Moscow consultancy Macro Advisory, a figure that rises to about 55 per cent of all food on sale in supermarkets.
Weafer says the main factor behind the rouble's fall is concern over the economy and worries that Russia needs to implement reforms.
This was compounded by the Kremlin's actions in Ukraine which led to sanctions from the West, and finally by the plummeting price of oil, which the Russian economy still relies on.
For many middle-class Russians used to buying imported products and holidaying abroad, the economic pain is real.
"I used to eat out all the time and buy my food in nice supermarkets, but the currency situation now is a nightmare," said Yulia, a 29-year-old Muscovite whose rouble-denominated salary fell by a third to the equivalent of HK$24,265 in a year.
"Now I don't go out more than once a week and find myself checking tomato packaging to make sure I'm buying the cheap ones and not expensive imports."
One of the main investors in the Aviapark project is Igor Rotenberg, whose father Arkady Rotenberg is a former judo partner of Vladimir Putin and one of the richest men in Russia.
Arkady and his brother Boris are on EU and US sanctions lists along with others considered to be close to Putin.


Europe's biggest shopping mall opens amid concerns over Russian economy

The luxurious Aviapark mall opens amid much fanfare in northern Moscow on Friday. 

The mall has room for 80 restaurants, a 17-screen cinema and more than 500 designer shops.

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World

The grand opening of Europe's biggest shopping centre comes amid growing concern over the perilous state of the Russian economy


As an orchestra belted out the Ode to Joy and a ceremonial ribbon was cut to loud applause, the biggest shopping mall in Europe was declared open in Moscow.


Europe's biggest shopping mall opens amid concerns over Russian economy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The grand opening of Europe's biggest shopping centre comes amid growing concern over the perilous state of the Russian economy

The grand opening of Europe's biggest shopping centre comes amid growing concern over the perilous state of the Russian economy