In St. Petersburg, the performance of the “Beasts” group during the PMEF was canceled

The announced performance of the “Animals” group at a free concert during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (PMEF) was canceled, instead the groups “Chizh and So” and “Django” will perform. “Fontanka” writes about this with reference to the organizers.

On June 16, the annual concert “Rock on the Neva” will take place on Dvortsova Square, which is held as part of the cultural festival of the PMEF “Petersburg Seasons”, reports Sever.Realii. The event is supported by the “Roscongress” Foundation and the St. Petersburg government. The performance of “Animals” was announced on May 30 in the official PMEF group in VKontakte.

“Let’s draw the cards: the romantic rockers – the group “Zveri” will be the headliner at Dvortsova. We have to admit, we have seen the hall explode more than once when their soloist Roma just steps on stage,” the organizers said in a statement.

After this announcement, Yury Kot, dean of the Faculty of Media Communications of the Moscow State Institute of Culture, wrote in his blog on June 5 that the leader of the group Roma Zver spoke against the war in Ukraine, which, according to Kot, makes him “a real representative of the fifth column.”

On June 6, the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Konstantin Chebykin, appealed to the prosecutor Viktor Melnyk with a request to ban the performance of the group “Zveri” on Dvortsova Square.

“The performance of this group on Palace Square can be characterized by the public as an insult to everyone who today, risking their lives, ensures the security of the interests of Russia and its population”, – wrote the deputy.

In a comment to “Fontanke”, the culture committee stated that the authorities did not announce the performance of the “Animals” group and no contract was concluded, “so that it is wrong to talk about the replacement of artists at the main concert of PMEF”. The group did not comment on the cancellation of the performance.

After the start of the war in Ukraine, the “Zveri” group made a statement in its Facebook group that it was opposing the war in Ukraine. The leader of the group Roma Zver (Roman Bylyk) also condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine on his Instagram. From 1989 to 1993, Roman Bylyk lived in Mariupol and for some time in Kyiv. After the annexation of Crimea, the group never gave concerts on the peninsula.

This is not the first case of the cancellation in Russia of concerts of performers who opposed the war in Ukraine; they are often canceled citing technical reasons. It was also reported that concert agencies began to include clauses in contracts with Russian artists that prohibit them from making political statements from the stage.