Forcing the way through Belarus to festival in Lutsk (photo)
Heading to Lutsk for the festival “The Right to be Free” and on the way back to Belarus musicians underwent “thorough search” at the border and Belarusian spectators had to take trains to get there because all their buses were suddenly claimed to be “technically unsuitable for travelling”. Moreover, everyone was “invited” to the police office where they had their passport data and job or university they studied at written down. Thus, they had to fight for their right to be free.
The bus with musicians from such bands as “KRAMA”, “Ulіs”, “Znіch”, “Comrade Mauzer” and journalists from independent mass media heading to the festival “The Right to be Free” in Lutsk left the square near the Academy of Sciences at about 2 p.m. on September 21. Passengers noticed nothing “interesting” except for a strange mini bus with tinted windows that arrived at the venue together with their bus and left it right after the bus started off. The mini bus only gave cause to jokes like “You have to live your life they way your tails won’t be bored”. However, everyone was sure that the main problems would appear near the border. Frontier guards and customs officers justified it.
A frontier guard collected the passengers’ passports and went away. None of the customs officers approached the bus within the following two hours. When the passengers finally lost patience and went out to find out what was going on they were explained that the reason for the delay was some misunderstanding. Customs officers did not return because the passengers had not handed in their declarations. They could not do it without passports. Passports had not been returned because customs officers had not checked the bus… However, the problem of declarations was solved and the passengers were sent to the room of “thorough search”. At the same time, people in the bus were already used to it.
The bus with spectators who left Minsk at about 10 p.m. had other problems. Policemen arrived at the venue and did not even try to conceal themselves. They were openly taking photos of everyone who had come there. As soon as the buses with young people, mostly students, left in the direction of Dzyarzhynski Avenue the police started following them.
The first bus was stopped not far from Dzyarzhynsk. Passport data of the passengers was written down in the local police office. According to the police, the reason for the detention was faultiness of the bus. All the detained were escorted back to Minsk. They were released near the railway terminal and the police advised they should go back home. Not everyone obeyed and almost everyone decided to try to get to Slutsk on their own.
The second bus was detained near Stoubtsy. At about 2 a.m. the police wrote down all the passport data and escorted the passengers to the railway terminal which was 1.5 kilometres away. The bus was forbidden to continue its journey. As it suddenly turned out, the sidelights were not on. One of the passengers told ERB that 15 out of 36 people managed to get to Baranavichy by train. Then they headed for Brest and then took the bus to Lutsk.
Passenger: “We thought they would take us to “Akrestsina”. But they released us near the railway terminal. We bought tickets for Saint-Petersburg-Brest train and arrived in Brest at about half past eight. We headed for the bus terminal and took a bus that delivered us to Lutsk”.
The musicians arrived in Lutsk only at about 4 a.m. on September 22. They rented rooms in the hotel right after that. They did not manage to sleep for more than 4 hours – the rehearsal and gear checkout were to start at 10 a.m.
There are only three things that have to be mentioned while speaking about the concert. First, the organizers were reliable and scrupulous. The scene, the gear and lighting were impeccable. Tents selling drinks and beer and cooking barbecue were scattered all over the Lesya Ukrainka Park. Apart from Belarusians with white-red-white flags, there were also many Ukrainians who had arrived in Lutsk. Representatives of the all-Ukrainian association “Freedom” arrived with their flags. And the musicians gave a wonderful concert in spite of the long and difficult journey and tiredness. Neither Belarusian fans nor Ukrainian spectators who heard them for the first time could stand still. Everyone danced. The mottoes “Live Belarus” and “Live Ukraine” could be heard all the time. There were about 2 thousand people right near the scene. Many people were sitting at tables listening to the concert from afar, and a lot of people were walking in the park. It was hard to count them all.
Everyone had to go through the “thorough search” room on the way back – musicians from “Stsayna” who left at 6 p.m., “Indiga ” who left at 9 p.m. and “Neuro Dubel” with the passengers of the bus that was bringing “KRAMA”, “ULIS”, “Znich” and “Comrade Mauzer” back home from Lutsk.
According to Rusya from “Indiga”, the bus of “Stsyana” was still standing near the border when they arrived there. Having been informed that musical CDs were cheeked and photos from PCs and SIM cards were copied by the police, they decided to get ready for it.
Rusya: “We deleted everything we did not want the police to see and decided to annoy customs officers. When they took all the discs and cameras they found we started coming up one by one saying: “Here is a disc of a wonderful American band, we advise you to copy it” or “I have a SIM card with interesting phone numbers, go copy them”. They agreed and took everything”.
The ERB reporter found out that one on the musicians from “Stsyana” had to spend two more hours at the border to write an explanation why he had a disc containing a performance of his band recorded by “Partisan school”.
They looked through all the discs and photos. The bus of the “Dubels” was searched several times. The thorough search took three hours.
Musicians from “KRAMA”, “ULIS”, “Znich” and “Comrade Mauzer” and journalists had to go though the same procedure. Customs officers did not only examined personal belongings but also searched the whole bus. They took pictures of T-shirts from the festival, newspapers found there and the passenger compartment itself. Musicians noted that they could easily put some syringes or porn magazines there and repeat the practice of the camp site in March 2006. However, when people asked “the camera crew” to introduce themselves they were confused and said that they were simply obeying orders. So it took about 4 hours to cross the border.
Neither musicians nor spectators doubted that the police, customs officers and frontier guards were ordered to do it to those who were eager to get to the festival. Ihar Varashkevich noted that the right to be free had always had to be fought for in our country. So they simply did it one more time.
Band " Stsyana " opens the festival
BN performing the song “Train”
"Dazhdzhamі " performed by BN together with Nastka Nyakrasava
Ukrainian "Shadow of the sun" entertaining the crowd
Ukrainian musicians did not grudge their necks and shook their hair
Indiga’s vocalist Rusya
Crowd shouting “Rusya, I’m proud of you” during Indiga’s performance
Ales Tabolіch from the band “Znіch” did not grudge his vocal cords
“Comrade Mauzer” jumping on screens all the time
Performance of “ KRAMA” attracted the majority of people
“Krama” allow spectators to come up to the scene with flags
It was not clear whether “Neuro Dubel” had arrived during the performance of Ulis
More than 2 thousand people came to the festival
The bus with musicians from such bands as “KRAMA”, “Ulіs”, “Znіch”, “Comrade Mauzer” and journalists from independent mass media heading to the festival “The Right to be Free” in Lutsk left the square near the Academy of Sciences at about 2 p.m. on September 21. Passengers noticed nothing “interesting” except for a strange mini bus with tinted windows that arrived at the venue together with their bus and left it right after the bus started off. The mini bus only gave cause to jokes like “You have to live your life they way your tails won’t be bored”. However, everyone was sure that the main problems would appear near the border. Frontier guards and customs officers justified it.
A frontier guard collected the passengers’ passports and went away. None of the customs officers approached the bus within the following two hours. When the passengers finally lost patience and went out to find out what was going on they were explained that the reason for the delay was some misunderstanding. Customs officers did not return because the passengers had not handed in their declarations. They could not do it without passports. Passports had not been returned because customs officers had not checked the bus… However, the problem of declarations was solved and the passengers were sent to the room of “thorough search”. At the same time, people in the bus were already used to it.
The bus with spectators who left Minsk at about 10 p.m. had other problems. Policemen arrived at the venue and did not even try to conceal themselves. They were openly taking photos of everyone who had come there. As soon as the buses with young people, mostly students, left in the direction of Dzyarzhynski Avenue the police started following them.
The first bus was stopped not far from Dzyarzhynsk. Passport data of the passengers was written down in the local police office. According to the police, the reason for the detention was faultiness of the bus. All the detained were escorted back to Minsk. They were released near the railway terminal and the police advised they should go back home. Not everyone obeyed and almost everyone decided to try to get to Slutsk on their own.
The second bus was detained near Stoubtsy. At about 2 a.m. the police wrote down all the passport data and escorted the passengers to the railway terminal which was 1.5 kilometres away. The bus was forbidden to continue its journey. As it suddenly turned out, the sidelights were not on. One of the passengers told ERB that 15 out of 36 people managed to get to Baranavichy by train. Then they headed for Brest and then took the bus to Lutsk.
Passenger: “We thought they would take us to “Akrestsina”. But they released us near the railway terminal. We bought tickets for Saint-Petersburg-Brest train and arrived in Brest at about half past eight. We headed for the bus terminal and took a bus that delivered us to Lutsk”.
The musicians arrived in Lutsk only at about 4 a.m. on September 22. They rented rooms in the hotel right after that. They did not manage to sleep for more than 4 hours – the rehearsal and gear checkout were to start at 10 a.m.
There are only three things that have to be mentioned while speaking about the concert. First, the organizers were reliable and scrupulous. The scene, the gear and lighting were impeccable. Tents selling drinks and beer and cooking barbecue were scattered all over the Lesya Ukrainka Park. Apart from Belarusians with white-red-white flags, there were also many Ukrainians who had arrived in Lutsk. Representatives of the all-Ukrainian association “Freedom” arrived with their flags. And the musicians gave a wonderful concert in spite of the long and difficult journey and tiredness. Neither Belarusian fans nor Ukrainian spectators who heard them for the first time could stand still. Everyone danced. The mottoes “Live Belarus” and “Live Ukraine” could be heard all the time. There were about 2 thousand people right near the scene. Many people were sitting at tables listening to the concert from afar, and a lot of people were walking in the park. It was hard to count them all.
Everyone had to go through the “thorough search” room on the way back – musicians from “Stsayna” who left at 6 p.m., “Indiga ” who left at 9 p.m. and “Neuro Dubel” with the passengers of the bus that was bringing “KRAMA”, “ULIS”, “Znich” and “Comrade Mauzer” back home from Lutsk.
According to Rusya from “Indiga”, the bus of “Stsyana” was still standing near the border when they arrived there. Having been informed that musical CDs were cheeked and photos from PCs and SIM cards were copied by the police, they decided to get ready for it.
Rusya: “We deleted everything we did not want the police to see and decided to annoy customs officers. When they took all the discs and cameras they found we started coming up one by one saying: “Here is a disc of a wonderful American band, we advise you to copy it” or “I have a SIM card with interesting phone numbers, go copy them”. They agreed and took everything”.
The ERB reporter found out that one on the musicians from “Stsyana” had to spend two more hours at the border to write an explanation why he had a disc containing a performance of his band recorded by “Partisan school”.
They looked through all the discs and photos. The bus of the “Dubels” was searched several times. The thorough search took three hours.
Musicians from “KRAMA”, “ULIS”, “Znich” and “Comrade Mauzer” and journalists had to go though the same procedure. Customs officers did not only examined personal belongings but also searched the whole bus. They took pictures of T-shirts from the festival, newspapers found there and the passenger compartment itself. Musicians noted that they could easily put some syringes or porn magazines there and repeat the practice of the camp site in March 2006. However, when people asked “the camera crew” to introduce themselves they were confused and said that they were simply obeying orders. So it took about 4 hours to cross the border.
Neither musicians nor spectators doubted that the police, customs officers and frontier guards were ordered to do it to those who were eager to get to the festival. Ihar Varashkevich noted that the right to be free had always had to be fought for in our country. So they simply did it one more time.
Band " Stsyana " opens the festival
BN performing the song “Train”
"Dazhdzhamі " performed by BN together with Nastka Nyakrasava
Ukrainian "Shadow of the sun" entertaining the crowd
Ukrainian musicians did not grudge their necks and shook their hair
Indiga’s vocalist Rusya
Crowd shouting “Rusya, I’m proud of you” during Indiga’s performance
Ales Tabolіch from the band “Znіch” did not grudge his vocal cords
“Comrade Mauzer” jumping on screens all the time
Performance of “ KRAMA” attracted the majority of people
“Krama” allow spectators to come up to the scene with flags
It was not clear whether “Neuro Dubel” had arrived during the performance of Ulis
More than 2 thousand people came to the festival
Almost a quarter of the present were representatives of the Ukrainian association “Freedom”.
