Celebrate Independence Day in Kyiv with various entertainments and activities
Kyiv is preparing to celebrate the 17th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence Day, which means an extra day off (Monday, Aug. 25), lots of fun, drinking and festive chaos in the streets, especially Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The exact times for most events are not yet known, but if you hang around the center from the early morning next weekend, you won’t miss anything.
All festive events on the occasion of the celebration of Ukraine’s Independence Day will be held from Aug. 20-24. Celebration will begin with the opening of the international art festival “Obiymys, Ukrayino!” (“Let’s hug, Ukraine!”) taking place at the Ukrayinskiy Dim cultural center (Yevropeyska Ploshcha) on Aug. 20-22. Besides, the nationwide exhibition “Barvysta Ukrayina” (“Colofrul Ukraine”) will take place there on Aug. 20-24.
On Aug. 23 the festivities will begin with Ukrainian national flag-raising ceremony at Maidan Nezalezhnosti. During the day, Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko will lay flowers at the memorials and monuments of great Ukrainian public figures such as Taras Shevchenko, Mykhaylo Hrushevskiy, Prince Volodymyr, Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskiy, the Monument of Glory and the Holodomor 1932-1933 memorial. Also, grand opening of the monument to legendary film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko at 21 Khreschatyk is planned for Aug. 23.
The same day, traditional youth athletic relay race Estafeta Nezalezhnosti (Independence Race) will start off Maidan Nezalezhnosti and an All-Ukrainian Festival of Creative Families of National Minorities will be held at the Central Culture Park (next to Volodymyrskiy Uzviz). Various images of the national flag of Ukraine, various Ukrainian symbolic souvenirs, greeting cards, ribbons in colors of the national flag and badges with the state symbol are going to be handed out to people in the streets by the representatives of the social program National Flag in Every Family. That day churches and temples of Kyiv will lead prayers for Ukraine and Ukrainian people.
The actual Ukraine Independence Day, Aug. 24, will start with a military parade at 10 a.m. on Khreschatyk. Fans of folk art and music should head to Spivoche Pole for performances of craftsmen, masters of various arts and amateur musicians. The 53rd annual exhibition of flowers will take place there as well.
A charitable concert of the honored Ukrainian artist, accordionist Ihor Zavadskiy, will take place at the Central Cultural Park. And at the city park Partyzanska Slava (Arsenalna metro) expect a festive concert dubbed “Kozatskomu Rodu Nemaye Perevodu” (“Cossack Kin will Never be Extinct”). Exhibition of works by embroidery artist Anastasia Stahurska and a fair of national masters in weaving and ceramics will open at Ivan Honchar Museum (29 Mazepy) in time for the Independence Day celebration.
At the same time, Hetmanstvo Museum (16B Spaska) is going to present an exhibition “Lvivske Hutne Sklo.” As always, the grand finale to the festivities will be a concert at 7 p.m. on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, featuring Ukraine’s favorite artists, such as rock bands Vopli Vidoplyasova, Okean Elzy, Druha Rika, and Tartak, and pop stars Tina Karol and Ani Lorak, who took second place at Eurovision Song Contest 2008, though Ukrainian media prefer calling her the winner of the contest. The show will be closed with fireworks at 10 p.m.
