"These people are fearless"

What did those who chose the “Afisha Picnic themselves said about the detainees for shares for free elections?

- I wish to have a good time! -The universal favorite of Antokha MS, the author of the spiritual hip-hop, throw from the stage.

“In the AVD“ Lublino ”they promise to chop off his fingers for the detainees if they do not pass dactyloscopy,” the message from the OVD-Info project immediately comes to me in Telegram.

On Saturday, many visitors to the “Afisha Picnic” had to swing on such emotional swing on Saturday. The audience of this festival previously intersected with the audience of the opposition, and this year the efforts of the crazy power, probably almost coincided.

On the instructions of the editorial office, I talk with people on the “picnic” for several hours and do not meet a single person who would not hear about events in the center of Moscow and would not empathize with their participants.

“The acquaintance has gone, he was already twisted,” says Inessa, a student with a straight bang. She is here to listen to the British electrician Mura Masa. - I also thought whether to go there. But there was already a ticket [to the festival], and I did not go.

“It seems to me that the“ picnic ”was quite awarded the number of those who were supposed to go to the rally,” Emelya believes from the same cheerful company of children and girls as Inessa. He himself really wanted to "see Antokha in liva."

The owners of their own musical label Dasha and Ilya admit that they simply “did not have the courage” to go to the action. The couple came to the Hedliners of The Cure festival. Ilya has pink hair and the lower eyelids - like Robert Smith, the leader of this British group.

“We sympathize, but we don’t walk,” says Ilya. - Here they were preparing today, dyed their hair and watched the ether of the “rain” ...

“I'm going to all go, but I won’t go,” Dasha said. - My mother walked when there was a ring around the garden, white ribbons ( the “Big White Circle” campaign in February 2012. - Ed. ).

“Maybe this is not our way to go to rallies,” Ilya thinks.

- Everyone has their own choice. I’ll definitely write a political song, for example.

For sowers of the Valera Technical University and Dima, the Saturday promotion for free elections could be the first in life.

- It was very difficult for us to decide. Although we are visitors, we and many of our friends are not indifferent to the political situation in Moscow, says Valera. - And we would like to express support to people who are now defending their point of view. These people are fearless. These people are not afraid of anything. It seems to me that the protest movement in Russia has a great future.

- Going to a rally is a huge risk in our country. It is always very difficult for me to read news from rallies, because every time there is some kind of tin,-Dima shares. - That is, I support, but so far from the sofa. I want to start supporting all sorts of organizations: “Agora”, “Mediazone” that illuminate these events help. I would very much like Russia to overcome the period of authoritarian power, so that the authorities began to change, there is more freedom.

I run between different scenes, assuming that one of the performers will also comment on the action on the Boulevard Ring. The political statement seems even in the line “I do not see evil, I don’t hear evil and I'm not talking about evil” from the song of the talented group of the group “Give a tank (!)”. But in the end

Not a single musician said anything about Vincelov in the center of Moscow.

Public participants in the action are supported only by the guys working at the small stand of the Memorial. In the afternoon, they cling to the stand with the words: “While we are walking here, on the boulevards is detained ...” - and periodically change stickers under it with an increasing number.

In the evening, when there are already 600 people on the sticker, I see how the organizers persuade the memorials to remove the improvised counter. The representative of the directorate asks me not to indicate his name and not find out the details, but makes it clear that he is afraid for the future of the festival.

- The idea was simple. People came to listen to The Cure, and this is their sacred right. But it so happened that on the same day in the center they disperse the action for free elections, ”Sergey Bondarenko, working at the stand, tells me. -Someone may feel guilty for going here and did not go there. Therefore, we hung [counter]. It seemed to me that if people pass, take a picture-it would be for them at least some act of solidarity. And at the first moment, people began to stop and thank.

At 19.15, the counter is removed with understanding.