Kyiv train factory to host electronic music festival – Aug. 02, 2019 – Kyiv Post

There is one day of the year that Ivan Matvieiev is looking forward to the most — Aug. 24, Ukrainian Independence Day.
For all Ukrainians, it’s a special day, but Kyiv-based Matvieiev has an extra reason to be excited: that’s when one of the capital’s main music festivals takes place.
On the day, DJs and techno groups will fill the festival lineup for Brave! Factory, the Kyiv music and art event that annually takes place in a functioning factory where metro trains are assembled.
Matvieiev, 36, is only one among thousands of people who will attend, but he might be one of the most excited.
“For one day, the factory becomes my favorite place in the whole world,” Matvieiev told the Kyiv Post.
The Brave Factory festival was launched in 2017, by the team behind Closer, one of Kyiv’s most popular nightclubs. The 36-hour-long festival offers a variety of music shows, electronic DJ sets, techno and house parties and some contemporary art is also exhibited at the industrial site.
“You feel the spirit of freedom at the festival, this is like another reality,” Matvieiev says.
The next Brave festival will be held at Kyivmetrobud factory on Aug. 24–25. It will kick off on Saturday at 8 p. m., running non-stop till the late hours of Aug. 25.
Its lineup includes over 60 acts, including the U.S. electronic music artists Detroit in Effect, Dubfire, Solar, and Model 500, Ukrainian hip-hop star Alina Pash and many more.
And even though it is one of Ukraine’s youngest music festivals, it is already on track to being one of the most popular.
In early July, influential electronic music magazine Resident Advisor included Brave on its list of the top 10 music festivals taking place in August this year.
“The festival is similarly excellent, with a focus on immersive stage design, quality sound systems and classy music,” Resident Advisor wrote.
The Telekom Electronic Beats website has also listed Brave as one of 20 must-see European techno festivals taking place this summer. Brave is in good company on the list which also includes Glastonbury festival in the U.K. and Sziget in Hungary.
Yet Sergey Yatsenko, one of the festival’s organizers, says it’s too soon to talk about Brave’s success.
“This is just the beginning,” he says.
Sergey Yatsenko, one of the festival’s organizers, talks to the Kyiv Post as he shows Kyivmetrobud factory on July 24, 2019. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Party-turned-festival
Brave didn’t start as a full-blown festival. It began in 2015 when Closer’s founders decided to launch a new series of parties called Brave! Factory.
These parties were different from Closer’s regular ones: they had up to six DJs playing at one party, instead of one.
Apart from that, they attracted bigger audiences and Closer’s premises were no longer large enough to hold such massive events.
In 2016, they got the idea to create a music festival outside of Closer, and even started to invite some musicians from abroad to Ukraine. A year later, the first Brave Factory Festival rocked the capital.
Sergey Yatsenko, one of the festival’s organizers, shows Kyivmetrobud factory where the festival will take place, during the interview with the Kyiv Post on July 24, 2019. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
It was a gathering of over 3,000 of people back then. Yatsenko says they had a “disastrous opening,” at the first Brave. They were making the location ready for the festival in hot summer weather, and on the first day of the festival it started to rain heavily and some technical equipment broke down.
“The first year was experimental for us,” Yatsenko says, adding that lessons were learned.
Since 2017, the festival usually takes place on the weekend on August 24, the same day as Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day, and when people are already in the partying spirit.
Yatsenko says they have picked the date for a strategic reason too: it is a public holiday in Ukraine, and it’s much easier for people from other regions to get to Kyiv.
The venue
The venue, a 70-year-old train factory, Kyivmetrobud, has not changed since the first festival.
It’s a unique setting, for sure. Unlike other music festivals in Ukraine, that usually take place in fields or some abandoned land outside the city, Brave takes place in a Kyiv factory that is still very much functioning.
The team rents a part of the factory, which is about 50,000 square meters, for over a month, in preparation for the festival.
They have chosen Kyivmetrobud factory as there are no apartment complexes nearby, and the venue itself has a lot to offer. The team got permission to use the location to its fullest, and now, Yatsenko says they try to “use every little metal detail they find at the venue” to build up stages, bars, and lounge zones.
Factory floors at the industrial venue are transformed into huge partying zones with illuminated pathways leading to various dance floors, big empty premises with dark walls are decorated with soft neon hues and metal platforms are turned into stages for performers.
Sergey Yatsenko, one of Brave Factory festival’s organizers, talks to the Kyiv Post on July 24, 2019 (Oleg Petrasiuk)
“It is difficult to surprise the audience, but we try to build here something very unusual,” Yatsenko says.
The festival has six stages with different names, each designed for different music shows. Techno music will be played at the festival’s biggest stage, as it attracts the biggest audience.
There will also be an area where visitors can rest from dancing and two food courts.
Yatsenko says that it might take a person up to 10 minutes to walk from one stage to another. Therefore, they give a map of the festival to each of its visitors and say that it is impossible to get lost there.
All about music
Not only the location makes Brave stand out among other music festivals.
“Our line-up is what makes it (Brave) special,” Yatsenko says. “We were looking at what was going on abroad and tried to do something completely different.”
There are almost no well-known musicians in the festival’s line-up, as its organizers are not chasing some “famous music labels and brands.” Instead, the team focuses on the quality of music and invites only those musicians they enjoy listening to themselves.
“Many musicians are unknown to a wide audience, but their music turns out to be quite unique,” says Daria Shevtsova, the curator of the visual program at Closer.
This year, the festival features over 60 DJs, musicians and bands from Ukraine and all over the world including German DJs Anthony Rother, Marcel Dettmann and others.
Israeli DJ Anna Haleta, who performed at two previous Brave festivals says that Ukrainian audience is sophisticated and she can feel that people understand her music.
“This is a very smart audience and for the DJ such an audience is a true gift,” Haleta told the Kyiv Post.
The U. S. DJ Bill Patrick, who often comes to Closer and will perform at the festival this year, says that Closer is one of his favorite clubs in the world and he is excited about the upcoming festival.
“Ukrainian crowd for me is one of my favorite people to play for,” Patrick says.
Sergey Yatsenko, one of the festival’s organizers, shows Kyivmetrobud factory where the festival will take place, during the interview with the Kyiv Post on July 24, 2019. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Contemporary art
“You can’t shade something that’s shining so bright,” reads one of the inscriptions on the factory wall, as the festival also offers its visitors to explore some art pieces, exhibited at the venue.
To select artists from all over Ukraine and abroad, the festival’s team conduct an open-call competition once a year.
According to Shevtsova, they usually invite nearly 15 artists, and take them to the factory before the festival, to help them create art pieces that can “quite organically fit into the factory’s space.”
“They (art pieces and performances) are not placed in one particular spot, but rather accompany visitors as they walk throughout the factory,” Shevtsova says.
Last year, one of the festival’s dance floors was decorated with quotes from different media on the attacks at rave parties in Ukraine, Georgia and Russia. The quotes were written with chalk and disappeared as soon as people started dancing.
“This way people erased this information from the dance floor and the media,” Shevtsova says.
The list of artists exhibiting their works this year is yet to be announced.
Matvieiev, who plans to attend the upcoming festival, says there is no need to study its lineup and look for familiar names there, as one of the Brave’s best features is that it always presents something new, as well as a welcome break from reality.
“It is like a short vacation from civilization in the center of Kyiv,” Matvieiev says.
Brave! Factory Festival. Kyivmetrobud factory (2/25 Svitlohorska St.) Aug. 24–25.
Festival pass — Hr 1,950 (about $76).
Tickets can be purchased at brave2019.ticketforevent.com

“…“You feel the spirit of freedom at the festival, this is like another reality,” …” (copy above)
Can one really know the spirit of freedom if not old enough to have experienced Soviet oppression?
Well, Daria Shulzhenko again gives a lot to read and think, though an album cut to play would have been nice. That way no one would accidentally go thinking they would experience Національна пісня / Natsionalʹna pisnya / Ukrainian folk songs.
On the other side the matured Ukrainian Diaspora, let’s not forget August 19 (Спаси / Savior) the blessing of first fruits. An apple pie recipe in metric & imperial measure would be thoughtful.
Than again on the 28th (Успіння / Dormition) [principle of mass conservation] the blessings of medicinal herbs and spices. Would not folk medicine be of interest from chamomile or feverfew tea to nettle (Urtica dioica) ligament?
Web links to Kyiv Post material are allowed provided that they contain a hyperlink to the stories and only a brief extract (not more than 10 percent) of the text.
© 1995-2022 BIZNESGRUPP TOV

Are you sure you want to delete your comment?
Are you sure you want to delete all user's comments?
Are you sure you want to unapprove user's comment?
Are you sure you want to move to spam user's comment?
Are you sure you want to move to trash user's comment?

source

Comments

comments

©2024 Création du site internet et hébergement par Rayofnight Websites

CONTACT US

We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Sending
Consent Preferences

Log in with your credentials

or    

Forgot your details?

Create Account

13 − 1 =