Kiev, Ukraine — This year, Ukraine’s largest music festival struck a different chord. Gone were the international headliners, the enormous concert halls and the hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Instead, the country’s most beloved local artists graced the Atlas Festival stage last weekend in front of what remained a boisterous crowd. The stage was built in a shopping center parking lot, the only option with a shelter large enough to house the expected 25,000 people in the event of an air raid.
Carefree youth danced, romanced and sang along, shoulder to shoulder with hardened military commanders as famous singers sang lyrics imbued with national pride. Music was the main goal, but so was breaking the illusion that the capital is invulnerable to the bloody battles hundreds of kilometers away.
“Such festivals cannot be separated from life in the country. The country is at war. The core issues here must relate to the war,” said Vsevolod Kozhemyako, a businessman and one of the founders of the 13th “Khartia” Brigade, now part of the Ukrainian National Guard and defending the front line in Kharkov.
“People who are still young and not in the struggle need to understand that they cannot live in a bubble,” he said.
And yet a bubble is exactly what it feels like to be in Kiev as the war approaches its third year. While Ukrainian soldiers are killed and wounded every day along the 1,000 kilometer frontline in the east, the capital stands in contrast with its busy bars and clubs.
Every now and then Kiev is confronted with the war. Two weeks ago, a barrage of Russian missiles destroyed a children’s hospital and a private clinic, in one of the deadliest attacks since the large-scale invasion. Residents have suffered power outages due to Moscow’s targeted destruction of Ukraine’s power generation at the height of a summer heat wave.
In every corner of the music festival – the first time it has been held since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 – attendees were confronted with the inescapable reality that their country is locked in a bloody war of attrition. Festival organizers hoped to raise $2.2 million (2 million euros) to help soldiers purchase supplies for the front line.
In the mall’s parking garage, several 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 target practice by shooting shadowy virtual infantrymen. In another corner, doctors brandished 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 celebrated artist who has been called the poet of the Donbas, recently joined Khartia.
“It’s just a little break, an opportunity to catch your breath,” Zhadan said, minutes before taking the stage in front of a roaring audience. “The most important things happen there, on the front lines.”
On stage, Zhadan started with one of his most loved songs ‘Malvi’ or ‘Mallow’. The audience sang along word for word. “But what can you do with my hot blood,” they chanted. “Who is coming to us.”
18-year-old Viktoriia Khalis was excited to see his performance. She had already been to the Atlas Festival once in 2021. The difference is big, she said.
“The main thing that has changed, unfortunately, is that the festival is now donation-related,” she said. But she also felt more connected to her home country. “I feel like this whole crowd is related to me. I feel unity.”
She feared another Russian airstrike – a music festival with thousands of attendees would be a prime target – but said she couldn’t miss the chance to see her favorite artists.
For Nadiia Dorofeeva, one of Ukraine’s most famous singers, every concert feels different. “Before, when I went on stage, all I thought about was whether I looked good, sang well and whether the people got what they came for. But now I dream of not having an air raid siren, I see people crying during my concerts.”
One of Dorofeeva’s songs, ‘WhatsApp’, is about a girl waiting for her lover’s return from the war. “She washed the phone with tears/like rainy glass,” often moves listeners to tears.
Among those present was Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, an assistant deputy chief of the Ukrainian General Staff.
“There are well-known artists on stage, they give their concerts and there are many Ukrainians around who donate their money, much-needed money for the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he said.
“We understand that our partners support us, but we also understand that we can do a lot ourselves to become stronger,” he said.
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Follow AP’s reporting at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
