No approval yet for Rock Coronation festival

The organizers of the Rock Coronation festival yesterday were expected to obtain a permit from the Minsk City Hall to stage the event. But even on Tuesday the so called “one-off license” was not issued.

However, Yury Tsybin, the festival’s founder, remains defiant that the issue will be resolved positively. He says that after the official press published an interview with the leaders of bands KRAMA and NRN Ihar Varshkevich and Lyavon Volski, the ban would look simply ridiculous.

Yury Tsybin: “We have not received an answer from the City Hall yet. But I hope that everything will be fine”.

To confirm the optimistic expectations of the organizers, the European Radio has approached the Minsk City Hall’s Culture Department for a comment. Uladzimir Antsilovich who is charge of those permits was somewhat surprised that journalists and fans wanted to know whether the organizers would be authorized to stage the main musical event in the country.

Aantsipovich: “I will not answer these questions. These are official relations. How come you pose a question in this way: “We want to know”?”

It turned out that this information was not a secret; the official simply refused from talking to the reporters and advised to ask for a comment from the organizers of the Coronation.

“I will not tell you anything, because this information is neither open nor restricted. This is just about our official relations with the organizers, so you have to approach them for any comments”, he said.

In an earlier interview with the European Radio, Yury Tsybin said that the organizers did not see any point in this year’s concert if the banned bands KRAMA, Neuro Dubel, NRM and Palac could not take part. These bands were mentioned on the list of artistes who are expected to perform. The European Radio asked the official whether he saw that last. However, the word “list” brought about the associations with the “black list” of the banned teams. The official began assuring that such lists did not exist in the nature.

When he eventually understood that we asked about the other kind of list, he said that he didn’t see the list of festival participant filed by the organizers, either. But he assured that it made no difference whose name was mentioned on that list. As they say everybody is equal in this country.

Antsipovich: “There should be no problems”.

The organizers of the Rock Coronation also hope that there will be no problems and those officials will eventually find the time to study the application and resolve the issue positively.