kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — This year, Ukraine’s biggest music festival had a different feel. Gone were the international headliners, the gigantic venues and the hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Instead, the country’s most beloved local artists graced the stage at the Atlas festival last weekend to a still-cheering crowd. The stage was erected in a shopping mall parking lot, the only option with a shelter large enough to hold the 25,000 people expected in the event of an air raid.
The carefree youth danced, had fun and sang, rubbing shoulders with seasoned military commanders and famous singers who sang lyrics full of national pride. Music was the main goal, but it was also necessary to shatter the illusion that the capital was invulnerable to the bloody battles taking place hundreds of kilometers away.
“This kind of celebration cannot be separated from the life of the country. The country is at war. The fundamental issues here must be connected with the war,” said Vsevolod Kozhemyako, a businessman and one of the founders of the 13th “Khartia” brigade, which is now part of the Ukrainian National Guard and defends the front line in Kharkiv.
“People who are still young and who are not joining (the fight) must understand that they cannot live in a bubble,” he said.
And yet, in kyiv, as the war approaches its third year, one feels like one is in a bubble. As Ukrainian soldiers are killed and wounded every day along the 1,000-kilometer front in the east, the capital is a contrast to its lively bars and clubs.
From time to time, kyiv finds itself confronted with war. Two weeks ago, a salvo of Russian missiles destroyed a children’s hospital and a private clinic, one of the deadliest attacks since the invasion of Ukraine. Residents are grappling with power outages caused by Moscow’s targeted destruction of Ukrainian power plants at the height of a summer heatwave.
In every corner of the music festival, held for the first time since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, visitors were confronted with the inescapable reality that their country is caught in a bloody war of attrition. Festival organizers had hoped to raise $2.2 million (€2 million) to help soldiers buy equipment for the front lines.
In the mall’s underground parking lot, various military units, from Khartia to the 3rd Assault, offered interactive games to attract donations and potential recruits. A first-person shooter game offered visitors the chance to improve their shooting skills by taking down virtual infantrymen. In another corner, medics held up severed plastic limbs and offered emergency medical training.
The festival ended on Sunday with a highly anticipated performance by Serhii Zhadan and his band Zhadan and Dogs. Zhadan, a famous artist nicknamed the poet of Donbass, recently moved to Khartia.
“It’s just a little break, a chance to breathe,” Zhadan said, minutes before taking the stage in front of a cheering crowd. “The most important things are happening out there, on the front lines.”
On stage, Zhadan started with one of his favorite songs, “Malvi” or “Mallow.” The crowd sang along, word for word. “But what can you do with my hot blood? Who will come to us?”
Viktoriia Khalis, 18, was thrilled to see her performance. She had already attended the Atlas festival once in 2021. The difference is stark, she said.
“Unfortunately, what has changed is that the festival is now tied to donations,” she said. But she also felt closer to her home country. “I feel like this whole crowd belongs to me. I feel a unity.”
She was afraid there would be another Russian airstrike – a music festival with thousands of attendees would be a prime target – but she said she couldn’t miss the chance to see her favorite artists.
For Nadiia Dorofeeva, one of Ukraine’s most famous singers, every concert is different. “Before, when I went on stage, I only wondered if I was beautiful, if I sang well and if people would get what they expected. But now I dream of no more sirens, I see people crying at my concerts.”
One of Dorofeeva’s songs, “WhatsApp,” is about a young girl waiting for her beloved to return from the war. “She washed the phone with tears / Like glass in the rain,” often brings tears to the ears of listeners.
Among the participants was Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, Deputy Deputy Chief of the Ukrainian General Staff.
“There are well-known artists on stage, they give concerts and there are many Ukrainians around who donate money, money that the Ukrainian armed forces need so much,” he said.
“We understand that our partners support us, but we also understand that we could do a lot on our own, to be stronger,” he said.
___
Follow AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
