Moscow authorities have announced another free concert and food festival at the capital's Gorky Park, which would coincide with a rally planned by opposition politicians and activists.
The announcement on August 7 said the free barbecue and music festival, dubbed Meat&Beat, will take place on August 10-11, with "meat dishes by Moscow's best restaurants" available to visitors.
The announcement said several popular Russian musicians were scheduled to perform at the event.
However, the OQJAV band -- originally listed as being among the performers -- said in a statement posted on the VKontakte social network that it would not play at the event.
The group was later removed from the official list of planned performers.
Meanwhile, the manager of Russian singer Polina Gagarina, also listed as a performer, told an online media group, Otkrytyye Media (Open Media), that the singer had not been officially invited to the concert.
Moscow has witnessed multiple protests since authorities in early July banned several candidates from running in upcoming municipal elections, claiming some of the 5,500 required signatures they collected to get on the ballot were invalid. On August 7, Russia's main election board upheld previous rulings barring the candidates from the September 8 Moscow city election.
Some 1,400 demonstrators were detained by police in a violent crackdown at the latest rally in the Russian capital on July 27.
On August 3, Moscow authorities organized a similar free food and concert festival, Shashlik Live, in Gorky Park that coincided with another rally by the opposition, which was also dispersed by police and more than 1,000 demonstrators were detained.
Several musicians said then that they learned about their participation in the concert from the announcement, and some of them did not take part in the event.
Moscow authorities said 305,000 people attended the Shashlik Live festival.
