An international musical festival in Tashkent that was to be headlined by more than 30 "pro-Putin" Russian musicians has been cancelled, following similar cancellations in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
The suspension of ticket sales for the Zhara, or Heat, festival scheduled for May 20-21 was announced by the Uzbek ticket provider on April 3.
"Unfortunately, the current situation in the world is not favorable for large-scale music events," iTicket said in a statement.
While iTicket described the festival as a "celebration of sun, music, and friendship that unites countries and generations," the festival has earned the moniker of "Z-Battalion" and "Pro-Putin Gang" by critics who say it is a platform to promote Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While there was speculation that the festival in Uzbekistan might be rescheduled, a police spokesperson told the AFP news agency that the event "was cancelled on an order from the Interior Ministry." The spokesperson confirmed that the festival had been cancelled due to expected performances by Russian musicians who have voiced their support for Moscow's war in Ukraine.
The 2023 event's organizers earlier announced that the festival, scheduled to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on March 9-12, was being moved to the New Uzbekistan Park in Tashkent.
“Russophobic sentiments are forcing the organizers to change the venue of the event," Zhara's organizers said at the time. "The reason for this is the active Russophobia in Kazakh social networks.”
The festival, which had become an annual event in Azerbaijan since 2016, was cancelled in Baku last year.
Posters for the event in Tashkent initially featured images of festival co-founder Grigory Leps, a popular singer-songwriter in Russia who has been sanctioned by the European Union for supporting the Kremlin's unprovoked war in Ukraine. Leps was also added in 2013 to the U.S. Treasury Department's list of "specially designated nationals" linked to transnational criminal organizations, but was removed from the list in February. Last year, Leps performed at a patriotic rally in Russia attended by Putin.
Other acts accused of being pro-Kremlin were on the posters as well, including Dima Bilan, who represented Russia in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, and the pop artist Lolita.
Recent posters for the Tashkent festival did not include Leps, Bilan, or Lolita. The new posters did, however, include Olga Buzava, who traveled to Russian occupied areas of Ukraine's Donetsk region to support Russian troops in 2022.
The Zhara music festival was first held in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, in 2016, and had been an annual event ever since. In 2018, it featured a performance by the U.S. actor Steven Seagal, who is now a naturalized Russian citizen, describing himself as a "Russophile" and frequently lauding Putin.
In 2021, the festival was scheduled to be held in Moscow but was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2022, Zhara co-founder Emin Agalarov announced that the festival scheduled that July in Baku had been cancelled due to the "current situation in the world."
But in January, Agalarov indicated that preparations were under way for the festival to resume in Azerbaijan in July, in addition to festivals in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
News that the Zhara festival would be held in Tashkent caused protests and calls for a boycott by Uzbeks on social networks.
'Heat' Turns Up On Pro-Putin Pop Stars Following Latest Zhara Festival Cancellation In Tashkent
The Zhara festival had been scheduled to take place in the Uzbek capital in May. (file photo)