Tavria Games, Kazantip, Chaika on the calendar
ew years ago the definition of a music festival in Ukraine was a couple of guys strumming away on a makeshift stage blasting their music through blown‑out speakers on Khreshchatyk.
Today, organized music festivals are popping up all over the country. And while the organizers still lack a certain amount of, well, organization, the summer events calendar is drawing some big‑name musicians to some pretty impressive venues.
Here is a list of the best Ukraine has to offer.
Chaika
The newest kid on the block, the Chaika International Youth Festival debuted in 2001 with two separate events – the first on Kyiv Days and the sequel on Independence Day.
This year’s event like the original will coincide with Kyiv Days this weekend, May 25‑26.
Chaika is already becoming a prestigious event, offering Kyivans a series of rock and pop events. The first Chaika festival featured Russia’s Delfin, Chicherina, DeTsl and Ukraine veterans Green Grey, VV, and TNMK, as well as several young and little‑known bands. It drew more than 50,000 people.
This year the festival will host a mixture of big‑names and newcomers.
Russian rockers 7B, Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsi, Total and Jeff Sotovarischi. The Ukrainian rock and hip‑hop scene will be represented by Green Grey, who are set to release a new album “Emigrant.” Skryabin, TNMK and Tartak are also scheduled to appear.
If you plan to skip the young bands, think again. Chaika organizers have signed Kyiv’s Krykhitka Tsakhes and Marakesh, Odessa’s Numer482 and Zaporizhya’s Tashi. Unlike last year, the young bands will not merely act as warm‑ups for the headliners, playing just one or two songs. This time, they will each have a chance to present a longer program and hopefully blaze themselves a trail to the bigger stage.
During last year’s Independence Day event in August, Chaika, divided into two sub‑festivals ‑ Hip Hop Day and Rock Day, both showing excellent attendance despite featuring five major pop concerts simultaneously.
The reason for such popularity, organizers say, is Chaika’s format: no contests, games or award ceremonies, but instead six hours of non‑stop music. The festival is open to all youth styles “except boring ones, and low quality‑conveyor musical products, even if they are considered popular,” Chaika’s Web site www.chaykafest.com claims.
Tavria Games
In conjunction with the Chaika festival, the Tavria Games will hold a large‑scale concert in the Kyiv center during Kyiv Days. The show called “Feast of Beauty in the City of Beauty” is exactly what Chaika isn’t: a seven‑hour extravaganza of contests and games, intertwined with official speeches, comics and pop music performances. Feast of Beauty is expected to attract three times the crowd than Chaika – around 150,000 people each year.
The most popular Saturday contest is a beer‑guzzling contest, sponsored by Chernihivske. Sunday continues with the “Queen of Kyiv” beauty contest, featuring 16 contestants.
The Kyiv Tavria event is just a precursor to the real Tavria Games in Nova Kakhovka next month. Ukraine’s most prestigious pop music festival is a three‑day music show, featuring sports, such as children’s soccer, a regatta and a competition for the disabled.
In addition, there is an all‑Ukrainian music awards ceremony called Zoloti Zhar‑ptytsya (Golden Fire Bird), and a show featuring the nation’s most popular KVN (variety show) teams.
Kazantip
This festival, to be held this year in the village of Popovka near Mirnoye, is about as far as you can get from Tavria Games in terms of both style and substance. It began as a competition between Russian windsurfers in Cape Kazantip on the Azov Sea in 1995 and has turned into a bastion of free‑love, electronic music and raggedly youth.
Over the years it has turned into one of the most popular events of the year, drawing “progressive youth” from all over the country and surrounding nations.
At first the non‑stop beach discos, and a high tolerance for low morals, draw thousands of partying youth to the festival’s notorious site – the abandoned Crimean Atomic Power Plant.
Back then young people would climb the plant’s rusty fittings and pass its narrow crossings just for the adrenaline rush that comes with the risk of falling into a nuclear reactor or getting lost in the dark corridors. The nightly techno discos were just background music for non‑stop partying.
But two years ago the festival was forced to move to a new location in the village of Mirnoye not far from Sudak. The festival kept its name, which had become synonymous with freedom for hip young Ukrainians and Russians. But the atmosphere was never quite as free as those first years.
This year the festival is changing again. Kazantip will become a closed event with limited access, which in practice means that it will be fenced off, and festival‑goers will need to show a pass to enter.
And gone are the days when you could pitch a tent and stay on the grounds with the thump, thump, thump of electronic music lulling you to sleep. Tents are no longer allowed.
Organizers are trying to spruce up the festival, which has gotten a lot of bad press over the years for its rowdiness and lack of cleanliness. This year clean‑up crews will make the rounds and keep the place tidy.
The sound system is supposed to improve – making the thud, thud, thud just a little clearer. And some of the best DJs from Ukraine and Russian will be spinning their favorite tunes at the discos.
Those planning to attend this year’s festival in Popovka near Yevpatoria should register at www.kazantip.ru.
Personal touch
Those nostalgic for the old Kazantip days or who want to visit the atomic power plant, should consider Touch Festival, now held in Shcholkino.
The International Festival of Body Practices and Touch features a number of seminars and lectures on personal‑enrichment and practical topics, ranging from managing money to everyday yoga. This year’s program features a dance marathon, meditations on the beach, Crimean tours and a variety of water sports. Participants can pick and choose the lectures they are interested in attending. They are priced individually, with the most expensive costing $40 for a 20‑hour course. For more information, see www.max‑mag.narod.ru/Kazantip.htm.
Tavria Games
June 28‑30. Nova Kakhovka.
Black Sea Games, children’s festival
July 15‑21. Skadovsk.
Touch Festival
July 21‑Aug. 1. Shcholkino, Cape Kazantip.
Kazantip Festival
About Aug. 1‑14. Mirnoye.
Independence, Europe,
Future festival
Aug. 24‑25. Kyiv.
