“Fourth Osokina Freedom Festival for Ukraine: Concert Highlights and Donation Drive”

On the evening of Saturday, May 20, in the concert hall of the National Library of Latvia, the fourth Osokina Freedom Festival for Ukraine was opened with an ambitious concert, gathering hundreds of music lovers and supporters of Ukraine both in person and live, and ended with a relentless standing ovation. During the festival, more than 11,000 euros have already been collected for the support of Ukraine from the ticket revenues and donations of the previous events.

Also this year, for the Opening concert, the festival initiated new collaborations between Ukrainian and Latvian musicians. Latvian artists – “The Good Type”, Ralfs Eiland, “Melo-M”, Katrīna Gupalo, “Sub Scriptum” and Andrejs Osokins himself met on the same stage to create joint musical numbers with Ukrainian musicians – Daria Leleko, Anastasia Yachmenkina, Anastasia Vasilenko , Victoria Pritulyak and Yevgenii Nasonov. The concert was also attended by two Latvian-Ukrainian groups, which were created in Latvia shortly after the start of Russian hostilities in Ukraine – “Varakuta” and “Shakima Trio”, as well as the Riga State Classical Gymnasium choir, in which eight children from Ukraine also sing. The concert was opened by the new Ambassador of Ukraine to Latvia, Anatolij Kucevols, with a speech and presentation of a letter of thanks to Andrej Osokin.

“It’s incredible how quickly the festival has developed – it was born during the restrictions of covid four years ago and now it has become an ambitious event in the cultural life of Latvia. At the beginning, our team was very small and we did everything ourselves – we not only played concerts, but also worked on advertising, created program concepts, we ourselves were lighting and tuners at concerts, carried tables, washed floors, scanned tickets, once even Katrína was a bartender. Well, our team is big and strong and brings together great professionals from various fields who, because of a common dream, create fantastic events for musicians, actors, artists and their listeners,” the authors and organizers of the festival, Katrīna Gupalo and Andrejs Osokins, reveal.

The festival will continue with two new concert programs – the concert of Andrej Osokins and the Festival String Quartet on May 27 in the cultural space “Ola Foundation” and the concert of Gundars Āboliņš and Andrej Osokins “Games of the Senses” on May 28 in the House of Blackheads. At the beginning of June, two unusual programs will be played in the Anglican Church – on June 1st there will be a concert “People, cats and music”, and on June 2nd – “Avangard night concert”. On June 4, we will hear Katrīna Gupalo at “Amoralle Level-Up”, and this year’s closing concert will be on June 10 at Riga’s Wagner House. Actresses Dita Lūriņa, Larisa Semirozumenko, string ensemble “Kremerata Lettonica” and Andrejs Osokins will take part in it. Before the concert, the performance of Ukrainian artist Daria Kalashnikova “How long can it last?” will take place in the Wagner House, as well as an exhibition dedicated to the war in Ukraine. On June 11, the epilogue of the festival will be held in the cultural space “Ola Foundation” – a solo concert by Georgi Osokina.

All ticket revenue generated during the festival will go to Ukraine – humanitarian, medical, defense and pet aid. You can also donate to these causes in a specially created donation campaign on the Ziedot.lv portal “Osokina Freedom Festival – for the people of Ukraine”.

Tickets to the festival can be purchased at the ticket offices of “Bilešu Paradise”..