BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/07/2007

Belarusian Rock-Music Festival Opens In Poland

A three-day rock-music festival called Basovishcha began on July 19 in a forest near the town of Grodek in Bialystok Voivodship, northeastern Poland, Polish media reported. Basovishcha is an annual music event organized in mid-July by the Belarusian Association of Students, an organization representing Poland's Belarusian minority. The first festival was staged in 1990. Although not overtly political, Basovishcha offers its stage primarily to young opposition-minded Belarusian musicians and performers blacklisted in Belarus for political reasons. The festival draws several thousand music fans from Poland and Belarus each year, and is practically the only high-profile music event where Belarusian music-lovers can see their favorite performers onstage. This year's Basovishcha, the 18th consecutive festival, features more than 30 bands, mainly from Belarus, but also several from Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland. Radio Racja, a Belarusian-language radio station based in Bialystok, broadcast several hours of live performances from the festival on July 19, and is doing the same on July 20. Radio Racja's programs are available online at http://www.racyja.com. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/07/3-cee/cee-200707.asp