Expat Sets Up Charity Concert

Moscow musicians will play an eight-hour music marathon Sunday at M-Club Moscow to raise money for the charity, the Taganka Children’s Fund.

The festival — called “Donstock,” rather than “Woodstock” — has been set up by Don Craig, a West Virginia native who has been in Moscow since 1993 and arranges gigs for bands when he is not working as a consultant at Direct Approach, a call center company.

The concert will see a mix of bands and styles, ranging from the hip-hop of Kayta and Da Duce to the pop and rock of local bands Mail Order Bride and French Whore Named Babette.

“I’ve worked with the Taganka fund before and helped with some events they put on,” Craig said in a telephone interview. “And then I thought a concert was the thing missing, so I suggested having a concert.”

“The music marathon will be the first event of this kind,” said Maria Trishina, a charity worker at the fund. “We’ve had sports tournaments and other social events organized before, but never a concert.”

The Taganka Children’s Fund is one of Moscow’s oldest charities and provides support to single parents, teenagers and disabled children.