The Russian government has hit out at authorities in Berlin for allowing a music festival to be staged near a burial site for Soviet soldiers.
Berlin’s Lollapolooza festival, headlined by Radiohead and Kings of Leon, is scheduled to take place on 10-11 September at Treptower Park, which also contains a large memorial site for Soviet soldiers who died during the second world war.
“We express serious concern at the plans of Berlin authorities to allow a rock festival to take place in September at this memorial site,” the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
“You have to understand that this event, which will be attended by 50,000 people, will take place on the site of the burial of 7,500 Soviet soldiers who perished while freeing Europe from fascism. We believe holding events like this at memorial sites is unacceptable, and will involve – literally – dancing on graves.”
The Russian foreign ministry’s letter follows a letter of complaint signed by 10 ambassadors of former Soviet states, sent to the mayor of Berlin’s Treptow-Köopenick borough six weeks ago.
The Lollapolooza festival in Berlin is the European offshoot of an American festival founded by the Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell. The inaugural event in 2014 was held on the site of Berlin’s disused Tempelhof airfield, but a new location had to be found this year because parts of Tempelhof are being used as a temporary shelter for refugees.
Tommy Nick, a spokesperson for the festival, told the Guardian there had never been plans to hold the festival on the actual memorial site, and the organisers were working on plans to build the site as far as possible from where the bodies were buried.
He said: “It’s worth remembering that Bob Dylan played in front of a crowd of almost 100,000 here when that part of the city was still part of East Germany. As recently as 10 years ago, 200,000 people watched the World Cup next to the memorial. But maybe there is a different political climate these days.”
