Milinkevich to attend Basowiszcza rock festival in Poland
Alyaksandr Milinkevich, leader of the Movement for Freedom, plans to attend Basowiszcza 2007, an annual Belarusian rock music festival that has been held in a large forest near Grodek in northeastern Poland since 1990.
Mr. Milinkevich will be watching performers and talking with youths and Belarusian music fans, Yuliya Kotskaya, spokeswoman for the former presidential candidate, told BelaPAN.
Although not overtly political, Basowiszcza offers its stage to young opposition-minded Belarusian musicians and performers blacklisted in Belarus for political reasons.
This year's three-day festival, which begins on Thursday night, features more than 30 bands from Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland, including cult Belarusian rockers and Basowiszcza prize winners of previous years, such as N.R.M., Neuro Dubel, Krama, Znich and Tav. Mauzer.
Ten bands, mostly Minsk-based ones, which were selected through a preliminary round in Belarus, are to take part in a contest to be held at the festival on July 20.
