Today (June 4th) at the Main Campus of Warsaw University will take place a concert “Loving and Understanding Freedom”. It honours the June 4th, 1989 elections that dismantled the communist government. The concert will start at 8:30 P.M. and will last 1.5h. It’s also transmitted online.
The 1989 legislative election was the first partially free election in post-World War II Poland. As a result of the Polish Round Table Agreement (Obrady Okrągłego Stołu), the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR) agreed to resign from the monopoly of power. They offered 100 seats in the Senate and 35% of seats in the Sejm (lower house of the Parliament) to independent candidates. That’s how the Cabinet of Tadeusz Mazowiecki emerged, and Poland became the first country of the Eastern Bloc where political opposition had actual power.
One of the first decisions of Prime Minister Mazowiecki was the abolishment of censorship. Thanks to that many artists who were against the communist government could make music legally. Those artists will perform on the stage at UW Main Campus. Among them will be Justyna Steczkowska, who represented Poland in 1995 Eurovision Song Contest, Kasia Cerekwicka, Norbert Smoliński and Dariusz “Maleo” Malejonek, who played in groups like Kultura and Izrael and received a golden Cross of Merit in 2014. Accompaniment will be played by Art – G Band orchestra directed by Artur Grudziński, and the concert will be hosted by Anna Popek.
The entry is free. You can also watch the concert online through Uniwerek.TV’s Facebook page.