Stones concert rolls on after animal rights protest
A planned Rolling Stones concert in Belgrade will not take place at the Serbian city’s racetrack to avoid upsetting hundreds of horses stabled nearby, concert organisers said today.
The event scheduled for July 14 – eagerly awaited by thousands of fans in the Balkan country – will instead take place in a vast public park, said Raka Maric of Music Star Productions.
The decision came after animal rights activists protested that the noisy concert would cause stress to skittish gallopers.
An idea to put the animals on tranquillisers while the rock legends unleashed their decibels was also criticized by the Belgrade-based Organisation for Respect and Care for Animals.
“We don’t want that issue whether the horses will suffer or not,” Music Star Production spokesman Ivan Ivackovic said.
“So we found the alternative” by moving the venue to the park overlooking the Danube river.
Officials at the state-run race track – which is being privatised following a bankruptcy procedure – had dismissed concerns about the animals.
