In Moscow, a book festival will be held on Red Square on June 6-8, despite the insulation mode. More than 10 publishers refused to participate

More than ten independent publishers refused to participate in the book Festival "Red Square" in Moscow, scheduled for June 6-8. Most of them refused to participate due to fears for the health of employees and visitors, the BBC Russian Service reports .

Who refused to participate?

The Alpina Non-Fixes, New Literary Review, Sinbad, Phantom Press, Ad Marginem, Individuum, and Children's Pink Giraffes, Polyandria, White Raven and Apricobux children's publishing houses.

The organizers intend to hold a book fair on Red Square, despite the insulation regime introduced in Moscow and the current ban on mass events, the publication notes.

The head of the festival organizing committee, adviser to the President of Russia in Culture, Vladimir Tolstoy, said that the fairs were considered permissible, because from June 1, non -food stores, including bookstores, began to open in Moscow.

The source of the Russian BBC service at the Moscow City Hall noted that the city authorities did not give permission to hold the festival. The interlocutor of the publication noted that the organizers do not need such permission, since the festival will be held on Red Square, and "this is the federal land."

The Rospotrebnadzor informed the publication that serious security measures would be taken at the festival in order to prevent the spread of coronaviral infection. So, all participants will have to wear masks and gloves, thermal imagers will install thermal imagers at the entrance to measure body temperature, and all the festival areas will be disinfected.

In addition, according to the BBC, Rospotrebnadzor recommended the festival organizers to be attended by two-hour sessions, and they were passed to the territory by preliminary registration on the website Mos.ru. In addition, the department suggested that no more than 18 thousand people visited it in all three days of book fair. For comparison: in 2019, according to the organizers, about 300 thousand people came to the festival.

The press service of the Krasnaya Square festival reported that the event cannot be considered as a massive “in full sense of the word”. “This is open air, the number of people on the square will be strictly limited. About a thousand people are no more! “They will be able to be there at once,” the press service said.

On June 2, on the website of Change.org posted a petition addressed to RSPETITITION, to the organizer of the festival. The authors of the appeal called on the department to transfer the fair to August-September.

Rethered by Alexander Baklanov