The 'Moldava Spolu' ('Moldava Together') music festival set to have taken place in a Roma settlement in Moldava nad Bodvou (Košice region) has been scrapped after the local authority declined to provide a permit for the event, organisers announced at a press conference in Bratislava on Tuesday.
The festival was scheduled for August 29 and should have served as a unifying event for both the white majority population and the Roma in Moldava – the scene of a controversial raid last year that has changed the police regime for carrying out such raids. At the press conference, event organisers said that they will not look for substitute premises to organise the festival, complaining that they received the negative news from the local authority a mere nine days before the festival should have taken place. The organisers dismissed the town's objection concerning the alleged lack of safe accessibility to the Roma settlement. “There's no problem with accessibility to the settlement for rescue teams, as two cars going in opposite direction can pass each other”, said the organisers, adding that they are considering taking legal action against the town authority. Mayor István Zachariaš told TASR that he declined to release a permit for the festival, as the organisers failed to present him all proper documents, mainly pertaining to security. “I needed to know on which specific plots the festival should have taken place, where the stage should have been located and how a police patrol would have been ensured. They didn't provide anything. So, at my own initiative, I approached the state police for a stance, and I was told that it wouldn't be safe [to organise the festival] in the settlement”, the mayor told TASR. He added that he isn't afraid of any legal action, as his reasons for banning the festival were well-grounded.
