The Siberian Concert Awards were held earlier this week at the Catherine The Great Equestrian Arena. The big surprise of the evening was Konzert Grabbem & Beatem’s three-award sweep, as KGB won Best Concert Arrest, Best Concert Detainment and Booking Agency Of The Year.

Everyone was looking forward to the evening’s entertainment, which, like last year, promised an all-star line up including Trey Anastasio and Smokie. Unfortunately, also like last year, none of those acts appeared. However, thanks to a last minute arrangement by the William Boris Agency, the audience was entertained before the awards program by Ivan Rockmoninof & His Dancing Hog. A superb dinner featuring roast pig immediately followed the awards presentation, adding a new dimension to the phrase, “dinner theatre.”

While at the awards, I spoke with several Siberian promoters who were excited about upcoming tours by The Moody Blues, Alice Cooper and Kenny Werner. Of course, none of these shows are coming to Siberia, but the promoters were still excited, never the less.

Everybody is still talking about SFXski’s latest acquisition, Evening Tsar Productions, one of the last major independent promotion companies. Evening Tsar reports that the acquisition will not affect its summer concert season, which may feature Snoop Dogg, Ratdog and Three Dog Night, and is tentatively set to open on August 29th. The promotion company promised that this will be the biggest summer season ever and may even stretch into the following week.

That’s it for now. In my next dispatch, I’ll be reporting on the various methods of torture and whether electric shock, dismemberment and physical mutilation are still valid concert business practices in post Soviet Russia. Reporting for Pollstar.com this is Siberian correspondent, Igor Petrov, signing off.