Before the performance, Picnic director Edmund Shklyarsky gave a brief press conference to a small circle of journalists.
How will you feel when you start this concert?
Edmund Shklyarsky: The concert begins with the feeling that part of what was planned did not happen. Therefore, we must play, no matter what. Then the people came to the festival (the night of March 22, editor’s note). And I know that some have especially come to this concert of ours today from Moscow, those who were also at Crocus. I mean, they outdid themselves and specifically came to prove something to themselves… These are the kind of people we have!
Did you have doubts about canceling this concert? And what was of fundamental importance to you when deciding to celebrate the Night of Remembrance?
Edmund Shklyarsky: Honestly, we had no doubts. But on the other hand, everything we could have burned. But this is not even a lick of what happened in Crocus… That’s why we decided to do what we do. And we will do it!
Did you significantly change the program of this concert, which became a Night of Remembrance?
Edmund Shklyarsky: We removed songs that we thought were no longer appropriate. It’s not funny, no. Thank God we don’t have any funny songs. We always remember the pandemic or something else around us. And any normal person cannot be happy if he knows that there is unhappiness somewhere.
What should everything that happened teach us from a universal human point of view?
Edmund Shklyarsky: I think no one will do a reassessment of values. No matter how much you want it… Life will go on. For us, fortunately, that is the case. But for others, unfortunately, it’s over.
But there will be no revaluation of values: everyone will create some values for themselves independently, in accordance with their sensations and feelings.
Will you be addressing the audience and what would you like to say to them?
Edmund Shklyarsky: At concerts we do not address the audience at all. We’re just playing. But on the Night of Remembrance we will observe a minute of silence. And we, of course, will say something. But we still don’t know what…
