You're reading: Summer festival season under way

Summer is on, and it’s time for holidays. The festival season is starting and trips are being planned. Here are some of the summer festivals you might want to check out to enjoy live music, dancing, arts and games. Apart from the two events that are taking place in Kyiv, these festivals will take you to some of the most exciting, picturesque spots in the country.

U.Rok – June 26-28
Founded in 2005, U.Rok (urok.org.ua) festival is held on Limansky beach in the Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky area, which is just a 30-40-minute ride from Odesa. Rock music is the main theme, although other musical styles are welcome. The lineup consists of 36 bands, including: WashingTones and W.H.I.T.E. from Kyiv, INself from Zaporizhya, Radiowaves, Pozhezhny Kran and Tsyrk from Odesa, as well as La Skarnemurta from Italy and KamikaDze-TR from Estonia.

Apart from the concerts, the festival guests may attend night screenings of short films, an exhibition of marine-themed crafts, photography master-classes, an art gallery, and a fire show. DJ sets to be played day and night. A tent city will be set up for those arriving with their own tents. To get to the festival site, you may take bus No. 560 from Odessa train station to Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky and get off at the Lymanska stop. Or take a bus from Odesa-Privoz market to Zatoka station.

Check timetables here http://www.ta-odessa.com/info/raspisanie/bus_zatoka.shtml.

Krayina Mriy – July 10-11
One of the most popular summer festivals in Kyiv, the Krayina Mriy festival (www.krayinamriy.com) will take place for the seventh time at its traditional location on Spivoche Pole.

The ethnic culture and music event, initiated and steered by musician Oleg Skrypka, will as usual feature a rich program of performances by ethnic music bands – from traditional to modern, both from Ukraine and other parts of Europe, as well as an arts and crafts fair, traditional dance classes, poetry and fiction readings and other amusements for adults and children.

However, there will be one major difference this year – the admission to the concert will no longer be free. The tickets are Hr 30.

The crowds worship electronic music idols at the Global Gathering 2009 festival on Chayka airfield in Kyiv. (Yaroslav Debelyi)

Global Gathering – July 10
The only other festival on the list that’s taking place in Kyiv, Global Gathering Freedom Music (www.globalgathering.com), will once again be held on the Chayka airfield. A major open-air event for all the electronic music-loving folk in the capital and beyond, Global Gathering will last for one day only, and yet, no less than 40 artists will play on its several stages throughout the day.

The main headliner this year is Dutchman Armin Van Buuren – voted No. One deejay in the world by DJ Mag for the last three years. Other famous guests include: Fedde Le Grand – one of the best known house deejays on the planet, techno master Dubfire, who played a memorable set at last year’s Global Gathering in Kyiv, Eddie Halliwell known for his virtuoso deejay technique, Gareth Emery – the star of the world’s biggest raves, and others.

German house and techno DJ Loco Dice, Canadian duet Sultan & Ned Shepherd and drum’n’bass artist Sub Focus will play in Kyiv for the first time.

Tickets Hr are 280-380. On July 10, festival buses will run between the Chayka and Zhytomyrska metro station.

ArtPole – July 12-18
The ArtPole (www.artpolefest.org/ENG), festival to be held in Kuyalnytsky Lyman (Kuyalnyk Estuary) – 12 kilometers from the center of Odesa, is offering a lineup of bands that mix folk with modern experimental music, spicing up ancient singing with rock, dub, trip-hop, house and IDM.

The program features: OrqueStrada (Portugal), Kapela Kvety (Czech Republic), Di Grine Kuzine (Germany), Gattamolesta (Italy), Village Kollektiv (Poland), Port Mone (Belarus), Atlantida (Russia), Fatima Spar (Austria) and Ukrainians Perkalaba and Piss&Laugh. Also expect theatrical performances by French company Ailleurs, Ukrainain shadow theater Dyv, as well as workshops and land art shows.

Tickets from Hr 50 (for one day) to Hr 200 (for three days).

Taras Bulba – July 16-18
Named after the epic character of Nikolai Gogol’s eponymous novel, Taras Bulba (www.tarasbulba-fest.kiev.ua) is one of the oldest festivals in Ukraine, having been founded in 1991. Ever since, the festival’s main goal has been promotion of youth culture and helping young Ukrainian bands to be noticed and heard, as well as cultivating patriotism among youth.

The festival is annually held in the small town of Dubno in the Rivne region, next to the ancient Dubno Castle, first built in 1492. To gather the best young Ukrainian music talent, the festival jury will hold auditions in several big cities of Ukraine throughout June. Guests from other countries are likewise welcome to play at the festival under one condition – they must have no less than seven songs in Ukrainian in their repertoire.

The closest cities to Dubno are Rivne and Lutsk. You can use one of the bus routes running to those cities (view bus schedule at bus.com.ua) or use “Pantera” marshrutka company (8-3656-4-9567; 38067-100-14-54) that conducts rides directly to Dubno (5-6 hours).

ProRock – July 17-18
Held in Smila, a small town 23 kilometers from Cherkasy, ProRock (www.prorock.com.ua) is a major event for all the heavy metal fans of Ukraine. This year’s program includes an international lineup: gothic metal idols Paradise Lost (UK), trash-metalists Suicidal Angels (Greece), Alestorm, playing power- and folk-metal (Scotland), Trail of Tears, playing gothic metal (Norway), power metalists Powerwolf (Germany) as well as Ektomorf (Hungary), Dark Funeral (Sweden), Onslaught (UK), Gods Tower (Belarus) and Fleshgore, Moria and Natural Spirit from Ukraine. A two-day ticket is Hr 250.


Svirzh – July 30-Aug. 1

The first Svirzh (www.svirzh.com) world music festival took place last year and turned out to be a failure. Named after Svirzh Castle in the Lviv region – the first location of the festival – it promised an impressive lineup of acts to play over three days, but instead wrapped up on the second day.

The companies providing equipment as well as musicians weren’t paid by the organizers, who in turn, didn’t sell the expected number of tickets. To ensure better attendance this year, Svirzh was moved to the bank of Kyiv Reservoir in Novi Petrivtsi village, which is only 10 kilometers from Kyiv. The exact program hasn’t been announced yet, though the organizers promise about 80 concerts on three stages, as well as fire-theater performances, nightime film screenings, dance floors, playgrounds, master-classes and other entertainments.

A performer sings his heart out a the Slavske Rock festival 2009. (metal.lviv.ua)

Slavske Rock – July 30-Aug. 1
Annually held in Slavske village in the Carpathian Mountains, Slavske Rock festival (slavskerock.in.ua) has already announced a preliminary lineup. The list of bands includes: Farben Lehre from Poland, Nader and His Band from Germany, Zumba from Georgia and Italian Strawberry Street as well as Ukrainian acts – Hutsul Kalipso, Mertvy Piven, Dynma Sumish, Animal’s Session and others.

Apart from live music, Slavske Rock will also offer: an ecological program – ecology-themed exhibitions, movies and installations; a sports program including a rope park, bicycle rental, hiking and games – football, volleyball and other activities.

The most extravagant rave costumes, non-stop dancing and wild behavior are the way of life at Kazantip. (PHL)

Kazantip – July 31-Aug. 28
The biggest electronic festival of the year and surely the craziest and most massive summer event in Ukraine, Kazantip festival (www.kazantipa.net) lasts a whole month. Having borrowed its name from Kazantip cape in Shchelkino village, where the first precursor of the fest took place in 1993, the festival moved from place to place over the years, until settling on the beach in Popovka village (30 kilometers from Yevpatoria, and 112 km from Simferopol).

Despite the attempts of the local authorities to close Kazantip down for “promoting drug culture” and other kinds of indecent behavior, the festival only keeps on growing, attracting more and more visitors every year – including many guests from abroad, who love its free spirit. Due to the duration of the festival and its number of dancefloors (no less than 10), the list of deejays is likewise extensive feauring over 300 names.

Among them are Carl Cox and Hybrid from the UK, Marco Carola and Oliver Hunemann from Germany, Kiko and Tito from France, Josh Wink from the U.S.A., Seba from Sweden and many others.

Ticket prices have not been announced yet, but in previous year they ranged between Hr 100-150 per day. Accommodation is available within festival grounds but it’s pricy – from Euro 100 per room.

Sosedniy Mir – Aug. 6-8
The Sosedniy Mir (www.sosedniymir.ru) open-air event, which translates as “Next World,” will be held on the site of the original Kazantip fest – the territory of Kazantip resort in the Shchelkino village, next to Kazantip cape and Tatarska Bay – for the third time. The festival will include exhibitions of artists and photographers, graffiti displays, theatrical performances, poetry readings, night screenings of animation and a fair of hand-made items.

In addition to this. expect contests, beach sports games – volleyball, kiting and frisbee, surfing competitions, and, possibly, even a paintball ground. Naturally, at night the fun will continue with a massive disco. But the main part of the program is the musical one, featuring a bunch of Russian and Ukrainian bands.

Russia is represented by alt-rockers Lumen and Jane Air, dance rockers Gorodskaya Kultura and Skvortsy Stepanova playing so-called dzen-punk as well as Animal DzhaZ, Stigmata and others. Ukrainians at the festival are: SunSay with its sunny blend of rock, funk, reggae and hip-hop, easy-listening band Lyuk, indie pop-rockers Tayna Tretyey Planety and others.

Tickets – Hr 300 before July 1, after – Hr 350. One of the many ways to get to Sosedniy Mir is by taking a train to Kerch and getting off at Sim Kolodyaziv station, from there – take a bus or marshrutka to Shchelkino. Or take the train going to Feodosiya and get off at Ayvazovska station, then on to Shchelkino by bus.

Kyiv Post lifestyle editor Alexandra Matoshko can be reached at [email protected]