BE FREE 2009


The organizers of the event were traditionally

“Belarusian Musical Alternative”

, the initiative

“Studfarmat”

and

“European Radio for Belarus”

. The partners

Be Free

were the Belarusian civil campaign

“Budzma”

and the Ukrainian

Chernihiv Rock Club

and

Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights

. The festival was held under the patronage

of the Chernihiv City Council

.


Ukraine remains the venue for the festival for the third year in a row. In its native Belarus, unfortunately, organizing an “open-air” (open-air concert) of this scale still requires a much larger number of official approvals and financial investments than in a neighboring country. However, due to such conditions,

Be Free

is not only good music for free, but also a place for young people from different countries to meet, and an opportunity to see a lot of interesting things during a trip.







Along with the musical part, this year the festival included educational events on human rights, organized by

Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, Belarusian Helsinki Committee,

organization

“Legal Initiative”,

German society

“Kulturaktiv”

from Dresden. It was possible to become an active participant in such events yourself, using a blank sheet of paper and multi-colored markers, expressing your vision of the legal situation in the world. A real stir was caused by temporary “tattoos” on human rights and festival themes, which were drawn by everyone who came.





Viktor Tarasov, Chernihiv






Public

Committee for the Protection of Human Rights:



–

As part of our organization’s activities, Chernihiv has repeatedly held various events and campaigns for representatives of civil society and activists from Belarus. Therefore, Chernihiv was not accidentally chosen as the venue for the third international festival

Be Free

. During the festival, together with the Belarusian public organizations

“Belarusian Helsinki Committee”

and

“Legal Initiative”

we organized trainings, role-playing games, caricature exhibitions, video screenings, a drawing competition, and distribution of information booklets on the subject of human rights in Belarus and Ukraine.



We wanted our events to be interesting not only to activists of public organizations, but also to ordinary festival participants from Belarus and Ukraine. Perhaps, in the future

Be Free

the format of human rights-related events will change and develop. But of course, we, as partners, are ready to take the most active part in future festivals

Be Free

, making them truly landmark events in the Belarusian musical movement for freedom.



The festival caused the widest resonance both in Chernihiv and in Ukraine as a whole.

The problem of protecting human rights and civil liberties, the development of civil society in Belarus is still quite acute (however, as in Ukraine). Therefore, the main message of the festival – “The Right to be Free” remains relevant.












Positive changes in the organization of the festival were a tent camp with lighting, food outlets around the perimeter of the dance floor. The festival itself was located 50 steps from the Desna River, so some even risked swimming for the last time this summer. Surprisingly sunny weather only contributed to this.


Despite the fact that the festival was non-commercial, the musicians gave it their all. Pleasantly surprised Belarusian and Ukrainian rock fans

Oleg Skrypka,

the leader of the group

“Vopli Vidoplyasova”

, who even tried to speak to the audience in Belarusian, and at the end of the performance raised the national flags of Ukraine and Belarus. Some bands came to

Be Free

, canceling their performances at Belarusian concerts that were taking place at the same time. This means that

Be Free

is becoming an increasingly important event in the music industry. Here’s what the musicians themselves say about the festival:







Serhiy Mikhalok, the group “Lyapis Trubetskoy”:



– I expected that there would be more Ukrainians at the festival. But, perhaps, people were too lazy to come from Kyiv and other cities. Probably, the fact is that the Ukrainian public is somewhat spoiled by a multitude of festivals with sonorous slogans. In order to attract their attention, a wide advertising campaign is needed.




At the same time, there were a lot of people from Belarus, even compared to Be2gether (the festival is held in Lithuania every year), which has a much larger budget and entertainment program. Perhaps this is due to the fact that some Belarusian bands played at

Be Free

, which rarely perform in Belarus. This attracted fans. In general, there were surprisingly few “gopniks” at the festival, although admission was free. We enjoyed performing at

Be Free

. Therefore, if we are invited again next year – we will definitely come!











Vyacheslav Korin, Ulis group, one of the organizers of the festival:



–

As a participant and organizer, I can say that this year’s festival was much better than the previous one. The tent camp was bigger, the stage and equipment were better, and the team of people who helped with the festival increased. And the atmosphere was appropriate for a free festival. Now it’s time to count all the “pros” and “cons” of the event and plan what will happen next. I hope, however, that in the future the festival will also be held in Chernihiv.













–

Finally, we found the venue that combines a beautiful stage and a tent camp nearby, located within the city limits, but at the same time located in a picturesque corner of nature. This year, in terms of atmosphere,

Be Free

has finally become a real open-air, – says about the festival

Oleksiy Lukashevich


from Studfarmat.

– In the future, I would like to translate the festival’s curriculum into the form of a summer school on human rights, which would take place before the event, in a calm atmosphere. The open-air, thus, will become a kind of summing up of the school.



There was also something funny. As Oleksiy said, at the third

Be Free

to the traditional interpretations of the name “To be free”, “Bees on the loose” and “Bulba-Fry” was added Beer Free – “Beer for free”. Once backstage, you could drink a little beer for free with the musicians.





Maria Sadovskaya, a member of the organizing committee







Be Free

notes the growing attention of the Ukrainian press to the festival and the greater activity of volunteers.




– We felt that our festival is not yet so well known in Ukraine, but there is a clear desire to learn more about us. Dozens of journalists were accredited to

Be Free

and they are eager to ask a variety of questions related to the history of the festival and its current status. The public’s interest in the festival has also grown – young people are already eager to help in the organization, and not just be passive spectators. The team of volunteers

Be Free

helped us at various points – from registering the residents of the tent camp, to settling the musicians and hanging up the road signs to the festival site, which even most residents of Chernihiv had never heard of before.








–

The debate about the appropriateness of the festival has been going on for all three years that it has been taking place, says

Vitaliy Supranovych, representative


of the BMA.

– However, the open-air took place





see




for the third time, and more and more Belarusians come every year. And this means that

Be Free


will live on!
















The organizers express their great gratitude for the support of the festival to the Chernihiv City Council, especially to the Deputy Mayor of Chernihiv for Humanitarian Issues, Oksana Tunik-Friz.






Daria HAROSHKA