Fest old world: Revisited

We offer you a selection of Ukrainian festivals that have remained in the memories of organizers and artists because of their unforgettable and ability to gather Neformat Family and not just under one roof or a piece of common sky.

Silently passes the year from which the longest pause in the activity of the modern world has begun. And "silently" is the key word here, as we spend it in the real SILENCE – scenes are packed up, some concert spots are closed forever, another ones wait for better times to come, musicians stuck in the uncertainty between "to wait" and "to risk". To get the listeners out from such passage of doubts and gloomy mood because of the concert activity decline, we've decided to share our memories from the loud past, where no hint could make us predict or believe the situation we are in now. Each of the described events is a unique print on the musical past of those moments" witnesses and of our media – the sanctuary, eclectically furnished with all that Ukrainian underground contains.
Here is the selection of memories from the concerts, surrounded with a special eternal gloria in our remembrance as in the minds of organizers and artists. For being so warm, legendary, and absolutely unforgettable, for gathering our neformat family under one common piece of the sky we appreciate those described events the most. All happenings are listed in the calendar order.

All described events are arranged in calendar order.

Neformat Fest — 11–12/09/2010

The oldest and, hence, the first in our list is "familial" two-days-long Neformat Fest, run by Ukrainian bands exclusively. There were mostly hard genres played such as hardcore, different types of metal, crust, etc. That festival was the reason and the place to meet for many Neformat forum habitants who were somehow connected to the independent scene of Ukraine.

"There were no "middling" bands – all artists were experienced, some of them even in few genres, and bright. Although the amount of energy and finances given to this event organization was too big. Despite all greatness of the atmosphere and action that took place on the scene, the festival brought financial losses and we had neither moral nor physical strength to try it once again the nearest time. In 2011 already the users activity of forum had weakened to the minimum and our forum moved with the flow, slowly fading and losing its community" – tells Oleksandr Masovets, the organizer of Neformat Fest and the permanent curator of all resources under the Neformat name. He is the one who considered this event exactly to be the most powerful of the series.

This event became the apogee of the Neformat's first decade (2004-2014) after which total rethinking of the organization activity has begun:

"Starting from 2015, we've begun to search for new ideas and senses with our new team and renewed energy, started experimenting with genres, number of scenes and locations. It [the festival, ed.] was not alike the festivals of the previous years anymore. We had plans for 2020 to make a large-scale event on an absolutely new location with a few scenes simultaneously the part of which we wanted to situate open-air. But as you see, the quarantine made us all put it off at least for some years."

Pefrormers: The Symbioz, Displease, Murder, Foible Instinct, Rise Of Cadia, Victim Of Chance, X-Box Murder, Forever Wasted, Slow Ride Home, Stoned Jesus, Poisoned, chorus:failed, Vogue Fall Decision, Шелест Запахов (ed. Eng. Swish Of Flavours), Time Of Defeats, Gumilinski, Marejada, Uprising Fomalhaut, Snakerider

044 Showcase — 23–24/03/13

Let’s talk about the metropolitan festival with the code name of 044HC. Showcase has firmly stated about itself in 2013 and that is the reason why we chosen to focus on the first event of the series. The first two-days-long hardcore/punk fest took place in Kyiv Small Opera. By the way, "HC" stands for hardcore. The bands which represented that event at its first time have remained inseparably bounded to it, particularly these are Reminded, Sike and Bluesbreaker who are the backbone of 044HC crew.

As the organizers say, this festival is surrounded by memories which are "funny to remember only post-factum". For example, the band Clearsight, in which Roman Kravets (the regular organizer of the festival) plays, had to cancel the show twice because of the sudden police intervention into the activity of musicians.

Generally, the history of this festival reaches the far time and geographic dimensions – Roman used to help with organizing the St. Petersburg music festival Raketa for some time by supplying the Ukrainian artists there, was into logistics, and that experience came in handy during the Showcases preparing. Together with Mykhailo Blagodir (Bluesbreaker), one more permanent organizer, they managed to successfully provide the tours for their bands which laid the basis of the whole fests cycle:

"Commemorating the reunion of the Russian band Unconform, we've decided to gather as many people as possible in Small Opera and to party all weekend, and on the whole to make the regular concerts with the name 044HC. It was much fun that time as the city was waist-high covered with the snow. Well, the flight of Unconform was cancelled and they tried to get to the location using all possible ways and, as the result of it, performed on the second day of the festival instead of the promised first one. Some people got stuck in the train on the drive-in to Kyiv and just kicked out the door to finally arrive on foot, our friends from Moscow drove off the track and barely reached us in the crashed car, etc. But in the end of it all we did it, the club was packed, and we had a really great time” — Roman comments on the event.

It should be mentioned that after the described festival there was also the charity Showcase organized with the motto "United We Stand". That one had a purpose to raise money for helping Mykola Lazarevskij who got beaten by "Berkut" workers. Such gesture demonstrated the involvement of this scene to the socio-political life of Ukraine:

"Any amount of money was vital in that situation. It was our initiative to help with what we can."

Performers: Unconform (RU), Still, Bluesbreaker, Totentanz, Reminded, Woundead, Clearsight, Homesick, Sike, Mihur Ravlika.

Вены-реки / Veins Rivers— 10–11/05/2013

One-time spent and unprecedented two-days-long event which took place in Uzhhorod, in such clubs as "Phantom" and "Burger". This screamo / post-metal / neocrust festival was pretty big — there were more than 15 collectives from different countries who (by fact) played on it in two days, and there would be even more to perform but unfortunately some of them couldn't get to the festival in time.

The festival was announced back in fall of 2012 already with the list of artists and the prepared poster by Sasha Pes. Despite all given information (line-up, city, dates) the discussions about whether this festival will actually happen were held during months. The organizers not only managed to make this festival come true but in addition they took on the responsibility to find the place for all visitors to spend the night, both musicians and listeners, as the event caused great influx of people from far away. Particularly, the tickets to this event were accessible for purchasing in Russia, Belarus, and, of course, Ukraine.

The plans to make this festival regular were floating in the air but didn't work out. Some say, it's because of the difficulties in organization which became a source of disappointment then. The thing is that "Phantom" club refused to meet the assured conditions and did not let arrange the festival in its walls on the second day:

"The owner of "Phantom", referring to the problems with electricity in the club, told us on Saturday, at noon, that it is impossible to hold the concert there. Appeared, there was a way to fix those problems only if the owner would not categorically refuse to do it, claiming about little revenue from the bar, trash near the club, etc. No one could foresee such a situation. If we knew, it would be possible to have some other place as plan B, Amphitheater for instance. There were 3 hours left for the second day performances to start, [ed. we] began to roll over all possible variants. It was a banquet planned in the aforementioned Amphitheater that day, though that place fit the most. Some places were under repair, another ones — refused or didn't give enough guarantee. The only place which agreed to let us in was "Burger", little and not comfortable for the fest at all, but still the only, — the feedback from one of the visitors on our forum.

Also because of such great number of artists, who got to the location in different ways and not always successfully, the delays occurred as did the replacements. That caused shock and negative reactions of people who came for one day or even for some hours to hear the particular band but could not for one reason or another.

Photo by Nadia Chaplin

Despite all trouble, the majority of people were satisfied, including the foreign members and musicians for whom this festival will be remembered as one of the brightest. It's quite a big achievement of such large-scale event which was actually curated by one person only – Anton, the bassist of Rings of Rhea band. Here's one of the comments on event from Slovak listeners:

"[…] and of course that it was really nice weekend!!! we really enjoyed it! I use to go to fluff fest every year, but I think that this was even better than fluff!
hope that Antony enjoyed that weekend the same way as us and he will do another fest soon
say hello to him, and much thanks for the house that he and Artem (i think that his name was something like that) booked for us. hope that the condition of house when we left was okay, we were little bit more than drunk so we left there little mess."

Performers: Celeste (FR), PhyllisDietrichson (FR), Black Hourglass (HU), Remek (СZ), Euglena (RU), Gattaca (CZ), Shizune (IT), Ива (Eeva) (RU), Esazlesa (CZ), Sen Deni (BY), Axidance (RU), Exmisja (PL), Cathedraal (FR) (screamo), Marjory Stewart-Baxter (PL), Challendger Deep (BY), Alphabet Cities, Elephant Opinions, Rings of Rhea.

Маяк Фест / Mayak Fest — 6–7/07/13

It is the first Mayak (ed. eng. – Lighthouse) Fest of all. Founded in 2012, it remained on the fetus stage for a year and only in 2013, happily for many, it was possible to make that bright hardcore punk event happen in Odesa. The Liebknecht Palace of Culture became its first and unchangeable place of coordination, not yet damaged back then. Some of the festival visitors even shot and edited an hour-long movie about the first Mayak Fest as if foreseeing the greatness this event will reach in time. That little movie yields insights not only of the scene, which fulfilled the damaged now building, but also of the typical visitor who was interested for the first time in the event we now call legendary:

First Mayak Fest was successful, perhaps, except the absence of the awaited Russian band For You.Éarth which could not arrive because their drummer had his hand broken. The organizers were satisfied with the work done, especially with the feelings they awoke in the crowd:

"Spontaneously, in the fall of the past [ed. 2012] year, just broadly imagining that thing, we've started calling the bands, that's a real adventure! Absolutely each one chipped in it. Many of our friends and close ones helped us everywhere. To see it, how your comrades help you make something, that seemed unreal yesterday, come true – this feeling is inexpressible", — shares Server Terlekchi, one of the event organizers.

On such a positive note it was announced that the festival will become a yearly event, and those plans came true too, thanks to what lots of unique bands were heard, Ukrainian ones and not only. 

In general the first Mayak Fest lasted for two days. Its program also included a cinema show and the festival permanently offered vegan cuisine.

Author of the picture is unknown

Performers: WxTxDxHxR, Homesick, Waytaker, Cold Season, The Symbioz, Holdback, Cios, Sike, The Occult, Tomorrow, Wild By Heart, Time of Defeats, My Victory, Kingpin, Rude Riot, Clearsight, Memorials, Partybreaker, For you, Earth, Bluesbreaker, Bona Fides, Aspire, Leviathan.

Burn The Scene For Fun 5 — 7/12/13

Founded in 2011, this festival is considered a Zhytomyr-based one, though it modestly took place in the suburbs of it till 2013. And only the fifth Burn The Scene For Fun happened in the central Zhytomyr club Inforum. This event steadily was the reason for meeting to many separated by kilometers friends or just music lovers, actually, almost all underground events serve this goal. But except all that, the fifth festival outlined itself with the presence of the foreign artists.

"Rivers Run Dry, for example, drove 2000 km from Budapest and back from here (on their way they played in Uzhhorod and Vynohradiv for 15 and 20 people respectively), spent a few hours at the border, bribed the DMV and it's all, in fact, for one concert only. Also all musicians gave the part of their income so the festival could bring us [ed. organizers] less financial damage. And this IS punk! Not when you hear "dude, let me in for free" from people you know", — the organizers of that event share their experience in the old interview.

Moreover, as the festival was arranged not for once or twice, its curators managed to reach the new level of organization for which the visitors were oftentimes thankful:

"This time we made it – we had a classy line-up and we maximally reduced the number of unpleasant incidents during the festival. And we owe it all to that experience we gained organizing the previous parts of the festival and some separate concerts. If we dare to estimate the work we've done, we'll put ourselves A-minus (or B-plus?), because there still were some things, we are unsatisfied with.

Performers: I Know (BY), ксилема (BY), Rivers Run Dry (HU), La Quiete (IT), Raein (IT), Cold Comfort, hurtovyna, Memorials.

Doom Over Kiev VII — 07/11/2015

This festival, dedicated to doom metal, is the oldest in Ukraine and is popular far beyond its borders, actually, it is the biggest festival of this genre in the Eastern Europe. First "Doom" had Ukrainian line-up exclusively, and the collaboration with the foreign artists has begun from the second event. This festival is significant for many reasons, for example, it was the only place you could hear an interesting band from Kryvyi Rih Automnia, for the first and for the last time ever, one more band Kauan also performed there live for the first time, the organizers of this invited a legendary "funeralists" Esoteric and death-doom metalists Saturnus to Ukraine, and even more to say – Kyiv band Vin de Mia Trix was, in fact, formed under the big impression of DOK.

"When we came together with people from the forum of doom lovers, we started to realize there are lots of us and that would be great to make some concert where only doom artists could perform. Those times (~2005–2007) there were only "jams" and almost no concerts, and it seemed that there are not many such musicians at all," — Eugene Dargaard says, one of the permanent organizers of Doom Over Kiev. — After the first show, organized by common efforts, we had success — the location was full up, and we continued to burn for it, making everything by ourselves, in the beginning — without any idea of how the concert can be arranged. We always worked on our reputation, it was important for us not to have any delays, so there was no disrespect to the listener and his time we could be blamed of, etc. So all our festivals were well organized and made good enough impression."

Seven is considered to be a lucky number though its power hadn't any influence on the seventh festival of the series. It had to surrender to the events on Maidan (ed. Independence Square) of 2013 which scared not only musicians who were going to perform on DOK, but also the local listeners who did not know what to expect from tomorrow:

"Usually it takes 9-10 month to prepare the festival. Back then, we had the tickets purchased for the headliners October Tide. When the protests had only begun and were peaceful, we had that little hope inside that the festival is not yet "doomed". And October Tide guys were ready to risk, to comply with the terms we had, though the ambassy already warned them that Kyiv is a "zone of danger". And another German band Worship just lost the touch with us, in the light of the recent (back then) events, which was a bit disappointing to us. Soon the gunshots began, and we realized that the situation aggravates, that it is impossible and wrong to think about the concerts in such situation."

Anyway, October Tide did it on Doom Over Kiev VIII, and what about the seventh festival – it finally happened in 2015, on the 7th of November, at MonteRay Live Stage. Even when the band Antimatter, which had to perform on DOK VII, could not board the plane due to the flight cancel by the avia company, the team of organizers quickly found another way to deliver the musicians:

"When they got there, the concert has already begun. A little delay had place, but the guys instantly took a bus from the airport, got to the club, came backstage, quickly preparing the instruments, and began to play right then. Such situations occur, unfortunately, but such challenges uncover or even prove how serious organizers or artists take their job."

Also this festival is of the largest scale in scope of visitors and within underground events. Thus, the last two-days-long DOK gathered about a thousand of people.

Performers: Pantheist (UK), Antimatter (UK), Kauan (RU-UA), When Nothing Remains (SWE), Vin de Mia Trix, Nightspirit.

Robustfest vol. IV — 23–24/04/16

The first Robustfest happened in 2011 and since then these festivals series considered to be something great and of the highest quality by default. Maybe, the secret lies in the motto which is "SPACE. LOVE. HEAVINESS". This is the steadily evolving festival which literally never remains on the same place – each of the events has its own different location and the line-up is always new, the bands do not ever match! Anyway, we outlined exactly that fest of the series, which was worth it the most, by words of the organizers:

"In fact, each event with the prefix "Robust" is unique by its atmosphere, poster, line-up. You may bravely collect emotions of such events – it is the best investment. But if we consider all elements, Robustfest vol.IV (2016) may be called outstanding: 13 bands from 7 countries on one scene during 2 days, 6 artists from different countries participated in the visual design of the festival, each band was announced by the spectacular poster", — Filipp Dobrov tells, the organizer of Robustfests.

It took place in Kyiv, in the MonteRay Live Stage club. The previous Robustfest happened two years before, and the date of the described Robustfest vol. IV was put off twice, which only fueled the fire of the stoner, doom and psychedelic listeners awaiting – the club gathered hundreds of people.

"All bands came in time and played – what could be better? The biggest part of what we planned was embodied, for example, the exhibition of posters and info-booklet. Sure, an emotional cup was fuller than a financial one", — Fil adds.

More details on the atmosphere and events you may read in the material of Noizr magazine.

Performers: Greenleaf (SWE), Weedpecker (PL), Sardonis (BEL), Coat (BY), Elder (US), Dekonstruktor (RU), Pree Tone, Atomic Simao, Celophys, 5R6, Soom, Dreadnought, The Curse of Wendigo.
 

Space Fest: Kharkiv Edition — 11/12/2016

Since we are talking about regular festivals, we cannot ignore Space Fest, especially considering the fact that Ukrainian post-rock actively evolves. This festival was founded in 2014, of course, in Kyiv though it sometimes moved beyond its borders. Further we go, blowing the light of nostalgy, so let's pay attention to Space Fest: Kharkiv Edition which took place in Kharkiv club ACUNA MATATA. The enter was free so as for three first festivals of the series, for:

"The main goal of this festival is popularization of this music. To arrange it for free was possible only thanks to our partnership with different clubs and volunteering of many caring people, not to mention the work of musicians themselves. We were and still are interested in making such music more accessible for the wider circle of people. It hurts to see how fantastically cool projects, which only lacked strength to bring their music to listeners, remain unknown", — Iryna Kolesnikova tells, the only and unchangeable organizer of all Space Fests..

But she accents that a financial side guarantees the quality of event, good sound, and comfort of the visitors, so the major of festivals happen for a fee.

Photo by Nestor Pidgurskyi 

In general, this festival managed to lead the genre out of a shadow in which it remained for quite a long time and strengthen the communication inside the musical post-rock community.

"Space Fest — is the only festival for now which opens many interesting bands to Ukrainian listener, as there are many to discover. But the tries to unite it all lead nowhere, in my opinion, because all bands act or don't act separately. That is why we don't have such term as “home post-rock scene”. Generally, the problem of our musicians of all genres is, perhaps, some fictional rivalry between us all, each tries to prove something to someone… same big names on the big festivals…", — Mykyta Yudin notes, the guitarist of Way Station collective.

Performers: Edwin Hubble, Pattern B, Nice try, Gagarin!, Stephano Goes Wrong.

Special thanks to everyone who helped me collect a complete and detailed festival picture: Eugene Dargaard, Iryna Kolesnykova, Roman from Clearsight, Filipp Dobrov.

Cover photo — Svitlana Yanovska