Youth Day is one of the most perplexing holidays in Ukraine because nobody knows what it is supposed to mark. June 25 is just a random date that has nothing to do with Soviet, Ukrainian or even pagan traditions. Unofficially, Youth Day is celebrated by Kyiv teen-agers every given Saturday as soon as the traffic is blocked at Khreshchatyk.
The only difference between an ordinary weekend when teens take to the streets and the official holiday known as Youth Day is the number of organized events.
This year holiday organizers decided to break up the raving crowd into three more controllable groups by staging concerts at European square, ploshcha Slavy and Spivoche field.
We chose the latter because it was supposed to host a real rock concert without annoying pop music. Ukrainian rock is an interesting phenomenon. It's just like Ukrainian feminism: You never see it in action, but everybody keeps talking about it on TV. At least local rock had a promising start.
In 1993-94 Lviv hosted an infamous rock music festival called Alternatyva. Inspired by Independence euphoria, rock and punk bands were springing up like mushrooms. Those were the days when journalists smoking a joint with some juvenile guitarist in the artists' room believed they were seeing the next Sid Vicious.
Seven years have passed since then and now the Alternatyva crowd is playing gigs like Kyiv Youth Day 2000. Sadly, the bands, such as Aktus and Mertvy Piven, that showed so much potential during Alternatyva had progressed about as far as reforms in Ukraine. They were still warming up the crowd before the 'big stars.' They played the same music and probably even wore the same T-shirts as in 1993.
In the new millennium these bands are still stuck in the category of 'young and promising' although most of the musicians there must have been in their 30s. What could the word 'reform' mean in Ukraine if seven years hasn't changed anything in the history of rock? The only band that actually became popular after seeming so promising was Okean Elzy but only because they heeled over pop and are not that alternative any more.
After sunset the 'big bands' arrived at Spivoche field, which was even more depressing than witnessing the decline of Ukrainian rock. First among the stars was Yulia Lord, who sang Nirvana's song 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' in Ukrainian. Lord, who probably wasn't even born when Kurt Cobain shot his first dose of heroin, simply bought the rights to use the music of Nirvana. Good old Kurt would turn in his grave if he could hear that.
But the audience at Spivoche field wasn't too picky. They were as enthusiastic about Lord as they were about Russian band Lakmus and all other bands whose names were incomprehensible. But when you are young, nothing can spoil your good mood on a sunny summer day – even bad music.
