Respublica 2015. Festival Diaries, Or What It Was Like

The story of this summer can be written looking at my sneakers. In the last days of spring, they were unnaturally white, so I just really wanted to step on my each foot very much. Then there was Kraina Mrii [Ukr. Dream Country Festival], walking adventures in Odessa, Atlas Weekend, then street food festivals… And this is only the first half of summer. And those are only control points. Now, I’m wearing my sneakers sitting in the train No. 770 on my way to Kyiv, and while a dozen of passengers are joking about a burned passport and dome lamps laugh hysterically in their hoarse voices, I look down again and realize that those sneakers are not even close to white now. And the summer is over now. And it ended with such an event!

Respublica. The territory of ​​street art and music. There did were music, street art, traveling, and street food. But first things first.

Day 1. Good Morning, Kamianets-Podilskyi!

3.34 a.m. is the morning, right? It accidentally happened that in the last few months I was to come to another city at the nighttime and had some walks down the dark mysterious streets. Who even needs a hostel when the weather outside is so great! Therefore, the road from the railway station to the fortress on foot takes about 40 minutes. The city is quiet and calm. There are almost no cars, only taxi drivers wait on the square nearby. They know that tourists are going to arrive at the concert soon. In fact, all locals call the festival Respublica “concert” and hurry to use the proper mood and atmosphere in their favor. Housing prices are rising. Raincoats are sold for 40 UAH. Early birds on the square near the City Hall are already selling coffee and mulled wine at 4 a.m. Frankly speaking the assortment here is not similar to favorite coffee-to-go on the streets, like the Hard Rock Coffee or Coffee Nostra, which gather the queues in the streets of Kyiv. Even those pesky “snails” don’t stand close. All you’ll get is just a half of a small cup of ordinary instant not very tasty coffee – like really, what else do you need for happiness.

The fortress met us in all its grandeur. Ancient walls, fabulous illuminations, inaccessible slopes… And people are coming one by one with ground pads and tents. I don’t have the one, so I’ve got some time till 12 a.m. until the check in at the hostel, and it’s enough time to explore the surroundings. The weather is good, a backpack isn’t heavy. And I truly hope everything is going to be this way next two days (attention, spoiler: it isn’t!).

There is a monument to a deer on one of the slopes, probably the one that showed Lithuanian princes the way to the ancient ruins, where a fortress was built later. Steep slopes. Hundreds of steps. Wobbly wooden bridges. A waterfall. Beautiful parks. This is all about Kamianets-Podilskyi.

The preparation on the main stage goes on since 5 a.m. when the sun hasn’t even been going to rise. The sounds of heavy music are heard far away during the entire day. Standing in the courtyard of the monastery on the opposite side of the hill, looking for a monument to Pope, you understand: Morphine Suffering are doing a sound check. Dakha Brakha’s music is heard in the room of the hostel. They are the one at the sound check now. Listening to these sounds, I fall asleep. There are two spare hours until the first performance. That is exactly two times more than the time I had for sleep last night.

I woke up at the sounds of Sinoptik. Later, there will be performances by MegamaSS, Stoned Jesus, Epolets, Morfine Suffering, Toster [ukr. Тостер] and Dakha Brakha [ukr. Даха Браха]. And this is only the main stage. In the tunnel, Superkeks, Infinite Tales, Somali Yacht Club, Khamerman is destroying the viruses [ukr. Хамерман знищує віруси], Simon Stone, The Paints of Past Memories are going to perform. The Art-Dvir is going to host Piano, Flying Swan, Sasha Boole, Marina Krut Project and Dakooka. And there are stage near the Town Hall and reggae stage… I gonna have to do some running.

Stoned Jesus were the first discovery. Stoner rock, let’s be honest, isn’t typical for Ukrainian music genre. However, the band is successfully touring abroad. And they have some strange, I’d say even a bit lazy energy which leaves no listener indifferent. The band played YSF, and it was great.

Then Epolets were performing. The band from Odessa brought the audience out of the trance. Alternative rock with the flavor of Odessa, that’s the name that seems the most appropriate and someone has already called them this way long before me. The band is sort of mixture of styles and trends, which are not going to fit some limits. They play what they write. They write what they hear in their heads.

Then, the hour of heavy music from Morphine Suffering, which have been much more active during the last year, and now they perform at the majority of Ukrainian festivals. In the fall, they are going to play a solo concert.

The Art-Dvir had its own atmosphere. It was comfortable and quiet here, felt almost like at home. It turned out that Flying Swan is the guy with the guitar and the beatboxer that were on the same train, just in another compartment. They became +1 band to the playlist. Local Marina Krut Project from Khmelnytskyi changed the name to Krut, to make it scream better. It was a long time since I wanted to see Dakooka. However, her great music was unable to save the overall impression. Let’s be honest: the ability to work with the audience is the half the performance. After the words, “Well, and then it’ll be this ridiculous stuff when you all scream our name and we come back for another song. Ha-ha-ha”, I decided that it was time to leave the cozy Art-Dvir. The crowd has slowly gathered for watching Dakha Brakha, and meanwhile Toster was smashing the stage. I’ll have to omit the most ingenious phrases due to certain circumstances (censorship, etc.), but the encore was great, and the legendary Skinhead Vasia was performed as well. However, it was a hard rock version, not the light studio one, which I remember from my young years (who even was in charge of music at that summer camp back in 2005?!).

Then Dakha Brakha came to the stage. I do not know whether there are even enough words to describe what happened to the crowd. Preparation to the performance was delayed, for it is pretty hard to tune the good folk sound. It wasn’t perfectly tuned, after all. However, no technical problems could spoil a good performance. Especially if it is a performance by the true legendary folk band. Dakha Brakha performs mainly abroad, so its appearance at the Republic can be considered as a true happiness. The reaction of the crowd was just incredible – singing and dancing lasted for the whole hour, from the first chord till the last ones. And the musicians’ smiles were the best evidence of how pleased they were to see such reaction to their performance at home.

The first festival day passed quickly. Even a little too quickly, I would say. However, there are still a bunch of interesting things.

Day 2. Water, Water From The Sky Again

I was coming to the fortress desperately thinking, “Give me some good music!” The lines from the best hits of the Russian chanson were ringing in the head. “The strawberry on my palm and the middle of the summer is not far”, “You were the beauty on your body, and you’re probably has named it a tattoo”. And I’m not even mentioning those emotional duets! The fact is that we wanted to visit Bakota, and getting there is not easy. Actually, you can drive there fine, but coming back – that’s the problem. So, after a 50-minute journey to with the musical driver with an incredibly rich chanson collection, we felt a catastrophic shortage of normal music. Moreover, the weather wasn’t great at all…

The program has changed. All who came to listen to Odyn V Kanoe [Eng. Alone In Canoe] couldn’t hide their resentment. DZIERZYNSKI BITZ performed – the only foreign band at the festival. Troie Na Dyvani [Eng. Three On The Couch] moved from the main stage to the Art-Dvir. Then finally long-awaited Kolos and Kolik came and drove away the clouds with their music. The guys thanked everyone for their patience, noting that the fans are the most important thing in musician’s life, for without them every musician is just half an artist. Sergii Martyniuk expressed an admiration with the landscape (as Art-Dvir was conveniently located on the walls of the fortress, and you could view the slopes and the entire old town from there), mentioned the FIOLET’s new album that will be released on October 1, and finally sang a few other songs from the band’s repertoire.

Then PDN came with their beautiful but depressive songs, and the clouds came back. And not just some clouds, but a terrible shower. After those guys, Panivalkova, known to many due to X-factor castings, came out. And after a delay of several hours, Odyn V Kanoe finally appeared on the stage. “Problems with equipment are something that cannot be predicted, – Irina Shvaidak told. – And I’m not allowed to touch the mike, so I don’t know what to do with my hands”. There’s no point of talking about their performance too much: it was incredible as it always is.

To say that Art-Dvir by the end of the second day looked awful is to say nothing… At first, there were makeshift straw chairs, turned into a straw scattered everywhere. Wooden benches were broken. The footprints of the mud were left on the soft ottomans by the most devoted fans, so, you know, they could see everything better that way… The host’s request to respect each other flew past the ear. The day before, people were smoking while sitting on the straw, and this evening they were partying with their lit cigarettes in the crowd.

Kharkiv band Dance Party. Dance! Dance!, which opened the program of the main stage on the second day, pleasantly impressed. The last time I saw this band, the guys were the opening act for Yellowcard, and actually, back then, they weren’t the band I would listen to after I get back home. Then there were Vagonovozhatyie [ukr. Вагоновожатые], Skinhate, and TKN. In the tunnel – HIELS, Give Me The Light, Patsanoth, 5 Vymir, Ostrov Dobrykh Nadiezhd [Остров добрых надежд], Dai Darogu! [Дай Дарогу!], Farinhate, and Dash.

And in the evening, there was a performance by Brutto. They didn’t just rock the crowd but caused the real madness. People did their best to make everything awesome. And it was awesome. Despite the delay. Despite the smokescreen (that did not cause much panic, by the way). It only raised the question once again: why the security doesn’t check the bags on the entrance? As if the drunk and the brave on the fortress walls and fifteen-year-olds sharing the bottle of some suspicious alcohol, becoming more and more cheerful with every sip, isn’t a thing worrying the organizers. Only those with weaker nerves are concerned. But let’s get back to Brutto. One can only be jealous of the musicians’ drive and their ability to work with the audience. The rain started again, but no one paid attention to it anymore. According to some eyewitnesses, a platform next to the stage looked on the next morning looked as though there were several thousand of elephants slamming.

The second festival day ended with the spectacular show by ONUKA. Surprisingly harmonious combination of electronics and various folk music instruments created a unique sound like it always happens during these shows. It is the sounding so loved by the fans though the band exists not for a long time yet. And everything would be fine, if not for a whole anti-fan club standing on the right, chanting either «ONUKA sucks» or singing their improvised cover for My City: “It’s my dough” (Ukrainian wordplay: city is місто, misto; dough sounds like тісто tisto).

Day 2 ended with the rain and mud. And with a good mood. Back then, no one knew what it would be raining all the night, and all the stuff of people living in the tents would get wet, and the music-rack would brake so the organizers would have to completely change the schedule. Everyone simply walked to their tents / hostels or stocked some food and drinks to party and leave the local walk of fame (or walk of shame) behind in a form of the track of the garbage near the fortress.

Day 3. What? Where? When?

The organizers informed of all unexpected changes, but the schedule has changed again. Then again, and in order to visit a concert one planned, it was necessary to pass a real quest.

When coming to Kamianets, people were talking about who is going to see which band. Some just were going to spend a great time in the tent city, and these people weren’t hard to notice a bit later. I wanted to see O.Torvald the most, but I wasn’t so lucky. All ended up with noticing Jenia Galich giving autographs and thanking the hosts in the evening. The same thing was with Boombox – Andrii Khlyvniuk appeared in the city center near the Town Hall, and listening to Boombox’s songs was almost possible on the way back to the train station late at night.

Bahroma closed the festival as it was planned. And it was the great show! If someone doesn’t know, it is one of those bands, live performances of which are even better than studio recordings. Rock with a little bit of electronics. Drive with a little bit of lyric. Dancing with a little bit of acoustics. And the final chord – the crowd asks for the encore.

erhaps, it was going to be the only song left till the end of this festival summer, for nobody knew what was going on the main stage 10 minutes away. Then a guard showed ordering no encores for today. The musicians returned to the stage not fully understanding what was happening. A voice from nowhere continued telling that everything has ended and everyone should leave.

“Who is that talking? Where does the voice come from? Guys, do you see him somewhere? Tell that everything is over to all these people waiting for the last song”, the frontman Roma Bakhariev didn’t stop. The music instruments have been turned out. The lights went down. But who even needs the lights or an acoustic system when there is an acoustic guitar! Moral: You can turn off everything you want, but if Bahroma are going to sing one more song, they will sing it. For encore is what it means.

One more band worth mentioning is Fontaliza. Their performance on the main stage was moved to the stage near the Town Hall, too. Then it was re-scheduled from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and then to some other unknown time. It was like “if you want to listen to Fontaliza, guess when and where they are going to perform”. Just at that time Kozhanyi Olen was performing at the main stage, and this band was among one of the most anticipated headliners. Right after them, O.Torvald’s show was scheduled. However, no one knew when exactly it was going to happen. After 8 p.m. That’s all. So, the contingent on the square near City Hall was, let’s say, pretty specific. Among the most colorful ones in the crowd, there were the local party-goers from the category “oh-look-there’s-a-free-show-here-and-alcohol-sold-nearby”; a couple, which is better not to remember in details; a drunk dude with angry face expression and a bat on his shoulder; his friends, well, at least without bats; the reckless and the smart after drinking two jars of Revo fifteen-year-olds; and the one you can’t ever forget – a well-known in certain circles “Zahidfest dude” – the guy with dreadlocks, dancing around barefoot, in torn shorts, topless, with not quite, let’s put it mildly, attractive look. And that’s just those who stood nearby. Yes, it is the audience every musician can dream of. Oh, and I almost forgot: fifteen-year-old schoolgirls, shouting for the encore after every second song.

The sound manager couldn’t tune the monitors appropriately; the drummer left the stage, then returned; the singer screwed up a bit; they began everything from the start with the words, “Well, let’s be honest, I screwed up, sorry, but at least now you know we play live”. And meanwhile the crowd explode with some specific friendly encouragement, like, “The recording would be better than [the end of this phrase was lost in laughter of his perhaps equally witty friends]; “Do not worry, everyone is okay here”; “One more song!” – “Oh, shut up, it’s not time yet!”. However, despite all this stuff, the set was performed well.

I couldn’t make it to the tunnel. There were DSPLY, Beyond This Place, KARMAKOMA, Gara’s Glitch, Серцевий напад and Streetfames performing there. The Art-Dvir hosted Леді Арлет, or their vocalist to be more precise, Tik Tu, Secret Avenue, Zapaska and Vosmoy. The latter one was also rescheduled later.

Actually, people waited for a little more responsibility from the organizers. Of course, they caught it bad from the weather and local authorities. Right, it is easier to criticize everything when doing nothing. But at least the minimum security measures could be introduced. Everything ended up with the phrase “move out further from the edge of the wall”, which often sounded not really convincing and remained ignored. One of the artists said the slogan was more like “Oh, sorry!” heard so often from the organizers and volunteers. Well, what else can we add? Let’s just thank those people, who were blamed for everything in the first place – the hosts, Victoria Zhukovska and Miach (Ball) Dreadball.

Non-Musical Respublica

In addition to the concerts, you could visit Khotyn with a guided tour, travel around the neighborhood on your own, or walk down the streets in search of murals. The latter one is obligatory. After all, is it even possible to come to the festival of street art and to avoid looking at what has been created over the past five years?

Some went to the guided tour while the others chose to walk with a small company of friends. Map with pictures marked on it, though not entirely relevant, was a great helper. And not only for us but everyone who took a picture of it to avoid wandering. So, only one piece of advice here: do not go on a bike ride. There are some problems concerning both bike rental and the rights of cyclists in the city.

Respublica in Kamianets-Podilskyi officially closed the summer season, both of festivals and good weather. It’s 8.25 a.m. already. The train arrives in 10 minutes. And those noisy companions are joking neither about burning passports nor about dome lamps. They aren’t going to celebrate another holiday, hastily invented as an excuse for getting drunk, though some alcohol still remains. It is time to go to work for most of them today. I take my backpack and head out to the exit. I don’t want to think of washing and cleaning waiting at home, neither about working deadlines and the subject of my Thesis at the university. I still am not aware of the surprise the plumbing has prepared for me while I was absent. I don’t know that I would try to cut the bracelet for ten minutes, all in vain, and then will hardly take it off without any damage. There’s only one thing I know: there certainly will be someone in the subway who will look at my used-up sneakers that once were white beat up with the rains of Respublica now and smile skeptically. And maybe they spent this summer less interesting than these sneakers.
O.Torvald, Boombox, Bahroma, and FIOLET keep playing from my earphones…