- Title: Kyiv ravers escape horrors of war through music
- Date: 30th August 2022
- Summary: KYIV, UKRAINE (AUGUST 27, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CLUB GOER, ANASTASIIA LUKOSHYNA, 21, DANCING IN TECHNO CLUB DJ PLAYING MUSIC, JUMPING TO MUSIC DANCERS LUKOSHYNA DANCING SHIRTLESS MAN DANCING
- Embargoed: 13th September 2022 11:32
- Keywords: Kyiv nightlife Ukrainian techno music in Ukraine podil schema sxema war in Ukraine
- Location: KYIV, UKRAINE
- City: KYIV, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Music,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001145330082022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Parties rarely end with a DJ destroying a barrel painted in the colours of a neighbouring country, but this is the reality for Ukraine's electronic music scene as it tries to keep the beat going through the war.
Before the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24, Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, was fast becoming a top European nightlife destination. Now, its young creatives are beginning to rebuild a cultural fabric devastated by the conflict and gathering donations for the armed forces on the frontlines.
Partygoer Anastasiia Lukoshyna, a 21-year-old student with a side hustle in copywriting, said on Saturday (August 27) that her entrance fee could help her peers who are at the frontline.
Although there is debate in Ukraine about how people far away from artillery shelling should behave in their free time, Anastasiia said she was convinced that she's dancing for Ukraine's victory.
"It doesn’t change how I feel when I'm here, because I understand that such events support those people. Part of the profit received from this event will go to the frontline, and this means that people I know from the university might receive help as well,†she said.
She added that the Saturday afternoon raves can also act as a safe haven for internally displaced people.
"I think that this (rave) can give people who went through very tragic experiences a certain feeling of freedom. And a feeling that life actually goes on and will be beautiful."
The DJ at the event, 34-year-old fixture of Kyiv nightlife, label owner Garik Pledov, told Reuters that his events are attended by military personnel and that his line-ups include former DJs now defending Ukraine in the country's south and east.
"They say that whenever they get the chance to return (from the frontline), they can at least for a few days party and really feel it. In these moments, they understand what they're fighting for."
The event entertained an upbeat crowd in the sunny courtyard of a disused factory, one of many vast, dilapidated Soviet-era industrial spaces repurposed by artists and musicians in Kyiv's Podil district. However, the war was never far away, with ravers forced to head to the nearest shelter when sirens sound.
Pledov held his first event, an art exhibition, in May, but held off from hosting "proper parties" until mid-June.
As summer is coming to an end in the war-torn country, clubbing and dancing offers a rare chance for Ukraine's youth to avoid the horrors they have lived through for at least one afternoon.
(Production: Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey, Felix Hoske, Stefaniia Bern) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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