Hundreds of beams of light illuminated the night sky in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv and 21 other Ukrainian cities on the night of May 12 to emphasize that the Ukrainian culture industry has not been able to function under the nationwide COVID-19 quarantine for almost two months.
Twenty of these beams cut through the sky in Kyiv at some of the capital’s most iconic locations: Mariinsky Park, Andriivskyi Descent and the People’s Friendship Arch.
Organized by dozens of cultural organizations, the light show was called #StopCulturalQurantine. It called on the government to start developing a joint plan for the culture industry’s return to work.
“The government has no scenario for us, for more than 250,000 people – artists, actors, musicians, choreographers, event organizers, cinemas, event agencies, light, sound and stage technical staff, designers, ticket operators… There are hundreds of specializations and professions in our industry, without which it is impossible to imagine the modern cultural life of the country today,” the organizers said in a statement.
Among the organizers are the Kyiv Music Days concert industry conference, concert agencies Concert.ua and Svitlo Concert, venues Atlas and Stereo Plaza, festivals UPark and Zaxidfest and market fairs Kurazh Bazar and Ulichnaya Eda.
“Thousands of event specialists in our country have been out of work for the past month, and their companies are practically on the verge of bankruptcy. It is unfortunate that in the so-called stage-by-stage (government) plan for lifting the quarantine, there is no place and rules for our craft,” Denys Rynskyi, founder of the Event Industry Forum, said in a statement.
The Ukrainian government has eased quarantine restrictions on May 11-12 for some businesses under certain conditions: summer terraces of cafes and restaurants, stores up to 300 square meters in area, manufacturing enterprises, businesses offering certain services and the offices of lawyers and notaries.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said the nationwide quarantine will be extended beyond its current expiration date on May 22. And Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said that May 22 will be the date for the next stage of easing the restrictions.
The government previously announced a five-stage plan for when certain restrictions should be lifted. The plan does not mention mass cultural events. But according to the plan, cultural institutions will be allowed to reopen when there will be less than five daily confirmed COVID-19 cases per oblast for 10 consecutive days.
On the morning of May 13, the government reported that 402 new COVID-19 cases were identified in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, which is over 16 cases per oblast. The total number of confirmed cases has reached 16,425; 439 people have died from the disease and 3,716 patients have recovered.
