Kyiv, Ukraine. This year, Ukraine’s largest music festival struck a different chord. Left behind were the international artists, the huge performance halls and the hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Instead, the country’s most beloved local artists took the stage last weekend at the Atlas Festival to what was still an enthusiastic crowd. The stage was set up in the parking lot of a shopping center, the only option with a shelter large enough to house the 25,000 people expected in the event of an air raid.
Carefree young people danced, romanced and sang, rubbing shoulders with hardened military commanders as famous singers sang lyrics imbued with national pride. Music was the main objective, but so was breaking the illusion that the capital is invulnerable to bloody battles hundreds of kilometers away.
“These types of festivals cannot be separated from the life of the country. The country is at war. The central issues here should be related 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 which 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, a bubble is precisely what it feels like in kyiv, as war approaches his Third year. As Ukrainian soldiers are killed and wounded every day along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line in the east, the capital stands in stark contrast to its busy bars and clubs.
From time to time, kyiv comes face to face with 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 full-scale invasion. Residents have had to deal with power outages caused by Moscow’s selective destruction of Ukrainian power generation at the height of a summer heat wave.
At every turn of the music festival, the first time it was held since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, visitors were faced with the inescapable reality that theirs is a country trapped in a bloody war of attrition. Festival organizers hoped to raise $2.2 million (€2 million) to help soldiers buy supplies for the front.
In the mall’s basement parking lot, 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 opportunity to improve target practice by shooting shadowy virtual infantrymen. In another corner, doctors brandished severed plastic limbs and offered emergency medical training.
The festival concluded on Sunday with a highly anticipated performance by Serhii Zhadan and his band Zhadan and Dogs. Zhadan, a celebrated artist nicknamed the poet of Donbas, recently joined Khartia.
“It’s just a little break, a chance to take a breath,” Zhadan said, minutes before taking the stage to a roaring crowd. “The most important things are happening there, on the front lines.”
On stage, Zhadan started with one of his most beloved songs, “Malvi” or “Mallow.” The crowd sang word for word. “But what can you do with my hot blood,” they chanted. “Who will come to us?”
Viktoriia Khalis, 18, was excited to see her performance. She had already been to the Atlas festival once before in 2021. The difference is stark, she said.
“Unfortunately, the main thing that has changed is that the festival is now about donations,” he said. But she also felt more connected to her homeland. “I feel like this whole crowd is related to me. “I feel unity.”
He was afraid there would be another Russian airstrike (a music festival with thousands of attendees would be the main target), but said he couldn’t miss the chance to see his favorite artists.
For Nadiia Dorofeeva, one of Ukraine’s most famous singers, every concert is different. “Before, when I went on stage I only thought about whether I looked good, sang well and if people got what they came for. But now I dream of not having air alarms, I see how people cry at my concerts.”
One of Dorofeeva’s songs, “WhatsApp,” is about a girl waiting for her lover to return from the war. “She washed the phone with tears/Like rain glass” often makes listeners cry.
Among those attending was Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, Deputy Deputy Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine.
“There are well-known artists on stage, they are giving their concerts and there are many Ukrainians around who are donating 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 on our own to be stronger,” he said.
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