Born in the embers of the Maidan Revolution, the scene of the Ukrainian capital became, in the 2010s, one of the most innovative in Europe. A few months again before the Russian invasion, clubs and festivals attracted the greatest DJs there.
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When the first Russian missiles fell on kyiv, at the end of February, Otel ‘, an electronic music club from the Ukrainian capital, had already become a workshop for manufacturing Molotov cocktails. The installations then became a logistics center to store and distribute food, train volunteers and other activities to help the defense of his country, now says Pavlo Derhachov, owner of the place located in the Podil district.
Now exiled to LVIV, he left a partner with solid military experience to use his cultural space to contribute to the war effort. A few meters away, in the same industrial complex, the Closer team, one of the best clubs in the world in the 2010s, has a supervised time the manufacture of camouflage nets and the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Since then, the missiles no longer fall regularly on kyiv, where a feeling of normality has returned, despite the martial law and the war which continues in the east of the country. Many inhabitants have returned, a semblance of social life too, with the reopening of bars and restaurants. The clubs of the Ukrainian capital, like Otel ‘or Closer, are not about to do so. In a little less than a decade, kyiv had nevertheless become one of the places of renewal of European techno. Clubs and festivals attracted a few months before the Russian invasion, leading DJs and thousands of people from Europe and the United States. For the Ukrainian capital, it was both a tourist asset and a cultural bridge with the West.
But does dancing and partying still makes sense in a country at war? For those who have contributed to the emergence of this scene, the time is for the defense of the country, even if the lack of places to flee or even temporarily forget the horrors of the war is felt. When it is not by making Molotov cocktails on a dancefloor, it is with support gatherings, compilations sold to lift funds or calls to donations abroad. “If we organize events, we have to help the army or the defense forces, we are not necessarily thinking of” having a good time “”, sums up Pavlo Derhachov.
The “Dignity Revolution”, a catalyst
Historically, the Ukrainian electronic music scene has always had artistic links with its neighbor. It was still built in opposition to Russian power. On March 5, more than a hundred members (DJs, artists, labels, clubs and promoters also publicly took position in signing an open letter to ask the entire electronic music community “to cancel all cooperation with artists, promoters, clubs and Russian organizations which do not actively resist the actions of their government “.
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