Aryna Viachorka commemoration concert banned

A rehearsal of the Labour Day will be held in Youth Stage Theater instead.

An advertising appeared near the ticket offices saying that the concert “Living for Belarus”, commemorating an educator and a producer of historical music Aryna Viachorka, was cancelled. The tickets disappeared from the web-site kvitki.by the day before.

According to the concert’s organizer Vital Supranovich, the reasons for the cancellation are unclear, Radio Svaboda reports.

“The concert was being prepared, advertising launched, tickets sold. There were no problems. It is Aryna Viachorka commemoration concert, not a political action, - Vital Supranovich tells. – I found out about the concert’s cancellation by accident, when tickets suddenly disappeared from sale. I went to the theater to find out what was going on. The poster of our concert was on the desk of the theater’s deputy director Anatol Karalou. He said that the concert was cancelled and he was not able to suggest any alternative dates, only in autumn”.

They told Supranovich that the official reason for the concert’s cancellation was the letter from the Ministry of Culture on additional rehearsals of the festive May concerts.

The head of the concert department Iryna Pazniakova confirmed the concert’s cancellation. According to her, on 23-25 April rehearsals of May festivities will take place at the Youth Stage Theater, and the events had to be cancelled. However, as it became known later, other concerts would take place on 23 and 25 April.

According to Franak Viachorka, the concert’s ban is revenge upon Aryna Viachorka for her active Belarusian cultural and civic position, a manifestation of the authorities’ hatred to living Belarusian culture.