Left-wing band Grup Yorum to hold new public concert

ISTANBUL

The first concert was organized in 2011 and attended by 150,000 people.

One of Turkey’s best known bands, Grup Yorum, will organize its third traditional public concert at the Public Bazaar in Istanbul’s Bakırköy neighborhood on April 14.

The first of the concert series titled “Independent Turkey” was organized in 2011 with the participation of 150,000 people, while the second one was organized last year with the participation of 350,000 people.

The band expects to draw 500,000 people to the concert this time, to shout that an “independent Turkey is not a dream.”

Two songs from the bands newest album, which was seized during an operation against Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C) in February, will also be performed for the first time in the concert. An orchestra of 18 people will accompany the band in the concert, while the İdil Folklore Team and the Beşik Public Dance Group will also perform dances.

As in previous years, many guest artists will also accompany Group Yorum as soloists, including Adile Yadırgı, Derya Petek, Apolas Lermi, Cahit Berkay, Erdal Bayrakoğlu, Grup Abdal, Hakan Yeşilyurt, Karmate, Marsis, Nejat Yavaşoğulları, Niyazi Koyuncu, Sadık Gürbüz, Selçuk Balcı, Suavi, and Yasemin Göksu. Actor Genco Erkal will read poems at the concert, which will begin at 3 p.m.