Jazz-Koktebel in Crimea - Jul. 07, 2004

Beg, borrow or steal the funds or means necessary to get you to Crimea for next weekend's big international jazz festival (July 15-18)... Ukraine's informal minister of culture Oleh Skrypka leads the Ukraina Mriya celebration at Spivoche Pole near the Lavra (July 10-11)... "Spider Man-2" and other new films hit Kyiv theaters this weekend

Post photo by Yevhen Kolesnyk

Over the weekend, Moldavan avant-folk homeboys Zdob Si Zdub will appear at the Ukraina

Mriya (Ukrainian Dream) festival; but on Friday, they’ll be warming up at Art Club 44, playing their raucous mix of old peasant ballads, shepherds’ songs, heavy bass riffs, playful strings, lusty choruses, and assorted exuberant noise. Sometimes sublime, sometimes a mess, but always a whole lot of fun.

Art Club 44

(44 Kreshchatyk, 229-4137).

10 p.m. Tickets Hr. 40.

MOVIE PREMIERE

Sam Raimi’s “Spiderman 2.”

It must be summer if the sequel to “Spiderman” is here. Sam Raimi, legendary among horror geeks for his splatter-flick past, once again directs, and once again he does a good job. Tobey McGuire is back as a shy Peter Parker who’s reluctant to assume his superhero duties as Spiderman, and Kirsten Dunst is back as his love interest Beth. One of the few superhero film franchises that’s well-written and relies on more than empty effects.

Various theaters. See Page 32C for theaters and showtimes.

SATURDAY 10

SPECIAL EVENT

Ukraina Mriya Festival.

Photo by Natalka Syd.

If the weather holds, this could be one of the coolest events of the summer, and might even approach the level of magical: an international festival of folk and folk-based music organized by Oleh Skrypka, V.V. leader and all around Ukrainian rock legend. The equally legendary Nina Matvienko is going to open the festival, and there are going to be kobzar performances, ethno-jazz, ethno-rock and ethno-punk, not to mention a whole lot of wild dancing. A bunch of Eastern European bands will be performing all day and night on two stages. The setting – Spivoche Pole, those lovely fields sloping down to the Dnipro up by the Lavra – couldn’t be more idyllic.

Spivoche Pole

(near Pecherska Lavra, Arsenalna metro). 2 p.m.

Free admission. Festival lasts through Sunday.

THURSDAY15

JAZZ FESTIVAL

Jazz-Koktebel 2004.

Photo by Dmytry Kiselev

Hot sun, sweet sand, the Crimean coast, that salt smell – and all the while you’re standing on the beach with a beer in your hand, listening to music. What more do you want? The stage is actually set up right there on the strand. More than a hundred acts from Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Poland, Israel, Germany, England and the U.S. will perform. Get train or plane tickets to Simferopol immediately. The festival lasts through July 18.

Visit www.jazz.koktebel.info for more information.