Central Kyiv will be flooded with people on Saturday, May 18 as a freaky concentration of rallies, protests and entertainment events will be taking place in the small area stretching between Khreshchatyk, European square and around it.
There
will also be unfortunate people trying to work in buildings nearby as
this Saturday is one of those work days that compensate for the lost
output during the holiday bonanza that lasted for the first half of May.
The most visible events will be political and rather unimaginative.
The opposition will be resuming its nationwide Rise, Ukraine! protest at 12 a.m. on European square. Led by head of Batkivschyna faction
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, UDAR faction leader Vitaly Klitschko and head of
Svoboda faction Oleh Tiahnybok the crowd will march up the hill to
Sofiyska Square. There, a rally will kick off at 1 p.m, and will last
for approximately 1.5 hours.
For
those who prefer to enjoy the show from their couch at home, get some
popcorn and switch on TVi channel, which will broadcast the rally live.
As
the opposition leaves the European square, the spot will quickly be
occupied by the Party of Regions activists who are scheduled to hold “an anti fascist rally” at 1 p.m.
Meanwhile,
an entirely different type of activists will gather on Mykhailivska
Square nearby for the annual Freedom March. They will demand
liberalisation of tough marijuana laws in Ukraine. The event will start
at 1 p.m.
While
politicians and activists protest, others will be celebrated Europe Day
on Kyiv’s main drag Khreshchatyk. It will feature numerous
entertainment events and outdoor tent exhibitions of various cultures of
the European Union states. The events will start at noon last until 5
p.m.
Those
who get hungry during the protests, will only have a few blocks to go
to find free food as plenty of Restaurant Day events will be held in
Kyiv today.
Numerous
pop up restaurants will be set on many central locations in Kyiv. The
carnival of free-spirited restaurant and food culture does not involve
fixed prices as customers pay whatever price they consider appropriate
for meals and snacks. One of the venture will start at 12 a.m. in
Shevchenko park. Full list of restaurants is available on the event’s
web page http://www.restaurantday.org/en/.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
