Who is organizing Ukrainian parties abroad during the full-scale war? How and why are they doing it? The Village Ukraine talks to the people behind two of Kyiv’s iconic nightclubs – HVLV and Closer – and the organizers of the ISKRA festival, which, as last year, will take place in Berlin due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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HVLV

Exile party in Berlin

HVLV (Khvylovyi), a Kyiv club, held its first Exile party in Berlin in summer 2022, referring to it as an “export party”. It was one of many big events HVLV has put on over seven years of its existence. For Exile, HVLV enlisted Otoy, The Lazy Jesus, Miura and a dozen German artists to perform in Berlin’s Re:mise.

“For all of us at the club, and for me personally, this project was an experiment and a challenge: organizing everything, bringing in this number of musicians, and ideally also raising money for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. I think it was a success; everything worked, everyone loved it, and we didn’t even lose money,” Andrii Yankovskyi, co-founder of the bars Khvylovyi and Bahrianyi in Kyiv, told The Village Ukraine.

Andrii Yankovskyi

co-founder of HVLV and BGRN in Kyiv

Lots of parties and gigs are always happening in Berlin. Last year, in 2022, Ukrainian artists started popping up in line-ups, but it was a drop in the ocean compared to the overall number of artists. Meanwhile, the full-scale war in Ukraine has made it clear that there won’t be any big parties there in the near future.

So we decided to host an “export party” to introduce the locals to Ukrainian artists and create a unique Kyiv-Podil vibe [in Berlin; Podil is a Kyiv neighborhood where HVLV is located, and where the city’s art crowd tends to gather - ed.]. That’s how we decided to recreate HVLV in exile.

We wanted to make an event that everyone would want to attend, so about half of all the musicians we invited to play were locals. We also invited several of HVLV resident musicians and artists we’d collaborated with before 24 February 2022. I know most of the artists personally, so it wasn’t difficult to arrange for them to perform – other than issuing a formal invitation so that the guys could legally cross the border [men aged 18-60 are only allowed to leave Ukraine in certain circumstances under the country’s martial - ed.]. We were able to get in touch with some of the [German] artists through Ukrainians who’ve lived abroad for a long time. I met them through Vitsche Berlin.

Working with Otoy, The Lazy Jesus, and German musicians

All local DJs I contacted responded to my invitation positively. I was pleasantly surprised by their openness and the ease of communication. I don’t think a single one of the people I contacted didn’t respond. However, we were only able to secure our location a month before the event so many of them already had a tight schedule and weren’t able to perform.

I invited Otoy to be the opening act. I wanted to have all sorts of musicians, not just DJs. Slava [Viacheslav Drofa, a rapper who performs as Otoy - ed.] fit our format best. He’d performed quite a bit at HVLV’s Fusion Jams and we’d been planning to host a concert of his for a while; we did it in Berlin instead.

Why Berlin? First, it’s one of the very few cities in Europe where there are parties every day and every night. Second, Berlin is in a great location: it’s slightly further than Warsaw or Poznan but the difference isn’t really that significant in terms of logistics. Third, there’s a great audience here, both Ukrainians (there are many) and an active international community. We, and other Ukrainian clubs, have hosted many artists from Berlin over the last few years, so we have warm relationships with the local artists.

Celebrating HVLV’s 7th anniversary in 4 cities at once

HVLV is organizing another international event for its seventh anniversary, this one will take place across four cities: Kyiv, Berlin, Marseille, and London. Superposition will go down in these four cities, all at once, on 10 March; each city will see different artists perform. DJ Velegurity and Konakov will play in London, The Lazy Jesus and Ann Mysochka in Marseille.

“Superposition is a quantum physics term. It captures the current situation and the event’s main idea. We are all in different places but if you look closer you can see we are all part of one community, united and strong,” Superposition’s organizers say.

Part of the profits from the parties in all four cities will be handed over to Musicians Defend Ukraine, a charitable foundation supporting Ukrainian musicians who are fighting in Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Bassiani, organizers of the ISKRA festival

ISKRA is a music festival organized by the founders of Bassiani, a Georgian techno club. The first ISKRA took place in Khvylia, a Soviet-time sanatorium [a health and recreation center - ed.] near Kyiv, in July 2021. The second – scheduled for summer 2022 – was postponed because of Russia’s invasion.

(The first ISKRA festival, which took place in the Khvylia sanatorium near Kyiv. Photo: Andrii Bashtovyi for The Village Ukraine)

The festival took place in late June 2022 in Berlin rather than Kyiv: Berlin has become the city where the majority of Ukrainian clubs and festivals are hosting events since 24 February 2022. The organizers donated all profits and 50% of all ticket booking fees to help the Ukrainian clubbing community.

The organizers have recently announced that the third ISKRA festival will once again be held in Berlin. “As the [2022] party was well-received and supported by the community in Berlin and worldwide, the two institutions [ISKRA and RSO, the Berlin club where the festival will take place again this year] have decided to take the collaboration one step further and put on the three-day festival for summer 2023,” ISKRA organizers explain.

The festival will take place on 23–25 June 2023 in RSO.Berlin. Tickets cost €35–55, with the possibility of paying an additional €13.55 toward assistance for Ukraine.

The festival’s line-up includes over 40 artists, with many Ukrainians – like Koloah, Nastya Muravyova, Alex Savage, Ponura, Jana Woodstock – taking parts alongside musicians from other parts of the world, like Ash Scholem, Kancheli, S-Candalo, and Ani Kvirkvelia. The festival will feature “a day of Talks and Panel Discussions” on a range of topics, which are yet to be revealed.

ISKRA organizers promise to donate part of the profits from festival tickets to charitable foundations working in Ukraine (Kyiv Angels, Kyiv Volunteer, K41 Community Fund, and Closer Foundation). The festival will also host a charity football tournament that anyone will be able to take part in regardless of their sex and gender.

Closer

Closer, a Ukrainian club in Kyiv, has hosted the most parties abroad since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Many of the club’s resident musicians ended up abroad after 24 February 2022, so the club “didn’t have any trouble organizing events” outside of Ukraine, Serhii Vel, the co-founder of Closer, told The Village Ukraine.

Closer organized a “home-grown DIY-party” for 100 people in Berlin in early February 2023; several of the club’s residents performed. Last November, they co-hosted an event with Georgian club Sazamtro, then organized a New Year’s celebration in Berlin’s Zenner.

Photo: Resident Advisor

In addition to the parties it hosts abroad, Closer continues to urge musicians from all over the world to come and perform in Ukraine. The club even issued a “letter of gratitude and invitation” to all artists who feel they are “able to go to Kyiv to perform at Closer and celebrate life together.”

“Lately we’ve had a lot of people from abroad come to the club. Two artists came to play at our ninth anniversary party,” Serhii Vel says.

Translator: Olya Loza
Editor: Sam Harvey