New fake images are circulating online after Max Korzh's concert at the National Arena. The Gendarmerie and the City Hall deny: “Everything is intact”

The Romanian Gendarmerie warns again about some images that are circulating online and are falsely presented as being from the concert that the Belarusian rapper Max Korzh gave on Saturday evening in Bucharest. The new images lead to the idea that there may have been destruction following the concert that gathered more than 42,000 spectators, mostly foreigners. The City Hall of the Capital conveys for its part that “the National Arena was not destroyed” and publishes images showing that “everything is intact”.

“In the online environment, images are circulating falsely presented as being from last night's show, to induce the idea that there would have been destruction in the stadium. The images disseminated by some accounts are not related to the event and come from outside the country”, informs the Romanian Gendarmerie on Sunday, in a post on Facebook.

The institution emphasizes that “the show took place under safe conditions, without incident and without destruction”.

“If not long ago we could say that a mission is over when all the participants arrived safely home, today it ends when the correct information reaches people. We encourage you to check the source of the information before distributing it”, the Gendarmerie also conveys.

And the Capital City Hall on Sunday signals the distribution of false images attributed to the Saturday night concert and emphasizes that “the National Arena was not destroyed, as was propagated on some accounts on social networks.”

“The young people at Max Korzh's concert last night behaved in a civilized manner throughout the event. The Romanian Gendarmerie announced that the images announcing the disaster in Bucharest are not from Romania”, mentions Sunday, on the Facebook page, Bucharest City Hall, which also publishes today's images from the National Arena, specifying: “Everything is intact”.

The Romanian Gendarmerie also issued a warning on Saturday regarding a disinformation campaign carried out online, associated with the concert held by the Belarusian rapper Max Korzh in our country, with images from a football match in France that were presented as being from Bucharest.

The Gendarmerie advises people to carefully check the source of the information before sharing it on social networks and warns that “the distribution of unverified materials contributes to the propagation of misinformation and can amplify unnecessary tensions in the public space.”

MAY: A concert held under normal conditions, without special incidents

A press release on this subject was also sent on Sunday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI), which emphasizes that the event hosted on Saturday night by the National Arena took place under normal conditions, without special incidents:

• “The event hosted by the National Arena took place under normal conditions, without special incidents. For the safety of the participants, over 5,000 colleagues from the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs acted for the entire duration of the activities, and public order measures were monitored including with the support of the MAI helicopter”.
• “We thank the citizens of Bucharest for their responsibility, cooperation and for the civilized way in which they participated in the event.”

42,000 people at the National Arena at Max Korzh's concert

Max Korzh, an artist from Belarus, almost unknown in Romania, achieved the feat of selling all the tickets at the National Arena for the concert he gave on Saturday, May 23, setting a record for a solo artist at a stadium in Bucharest.

On Saturday, the spokeswoman of the Romanian Gendarmerie, Ana Maria Burchi, stated that fans from more than 50 countries are expected at this concert, and the authorities have taken all security measures around the stadium.

“The National Arena will welcome more than 42,000 participants to the concert of the artist Max Korzh. The MAI structures have ordered integrated public order measures to ensure the safety of all participants.”

“The specificity of this event lies in its international character, with participants from more than 50 countries present. The Gendarmerie and the Police have been organizing preventive actions since the past few days, in the most important points of the Capital. Informational materials with recommendations were made in several languages”, explained the spokeswoman.

Who is Max Korzh?

Maksim Anatolyevich Korzh (aka Max Korzh) is 37 years old. In “political” times, he established himself as an artist not because he gave explicitly activist messages. His lyrics speak of escape, hopelessness, freedom and ordinary people crushed by a harsh system. Not only Belarusians recognized themselves in it, but also many young people from Eastern Europe.

Max Korzh was born in the city of Luninets in Belarus. He moved to Minsk at an early age, where he was sent by his parents to a music school. At 16, he was already playing in a band, and he recorded his first solo track while studying at the Belarusian State University.

In his third year of college, he decided to quit his studies and focus on his music career, borrowed $300 from his mother, went to a studio and recorded the song “Nebo Pomozhet Nam” (“Heaven will help us”), which he posted on VKontakte, Russia's largest social network, in 2012.

Shortly thereafter, he was drafted into the army. When he returned from military service, he found out that the song had gone viral and was very popular in Belarus. His song attracted a large number of fans and began to be played on the radio.

In 2013, Korzh became the first Belarusian artist to perform a sold out concert in Minsk-Arena, in front of 13,000 people.

From here, his popularity continued to grow, and his songs in Russian brought him fans from countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic, etc.

In large part, his success is due to the fact that he addresses in his music very common themes for the new generations in Slavic countries who grew up in societies where freedom was or is problematic, where the future was always uncertain and full of anxieties.