Summer open-airs of Ukraine 2016: Chose a festival of your taste

For those who want to spend a holiday with music, we made a map of the festivals that you couldn’t miss. This year, their location are the center, south and west parts of the country.

Among the headliners are the winners of “Eurovision” Lordi, “Red Hot Chili Peppers” and Russia’s “Сплин”.

“Step into the Future”, June 17, Kherson

At 17:00 on the Dnipro embankment in Kherson, in the Park of Glory, kicks hard rock festival. Nine teams from seven countries (Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Belarus, Estonia, Norway, Ukraine) will perform for all fans of roaring and aggressive music. They are Weesp, Pavic, Grimoff etc. The main headliner is Norwegian band Sirenia, which celebrates this year 15th anniversary, so they present a set of best songs for the entire period of existence. They have not only English compositions but also in Spanish and even Latin. Their main difference from the other teams is fact that they use not only female vocals but also choral singing.

Admission free.

“Rock Mace” from 17 to 19 June, Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky

Rock Festival will be held at the sports base “Pereyaslavl”, which is situated on the bank of the Dnipro River. More than 60 Ukrainian teams will participate in the forum. As we were told by the organizers, during a few months rock fans was voting for bands’ tracks to invite the winners. Headliners: Rollіks, Morphine Suffering, Outta Peak (Italy), Workplace (Poland), Earl Grey (Germany). The most soft-sounding, but the most popular among the participants,  became Антитіла band. They released a successful album “Everything is beautiful” this year. They also included in their repertoire a cover of the song «People like shіps» by Скрябін that already has become the leader of the charts rock radio stations.

Full ticket: 190 UAH, a place for the tent – 60 UAH.

Alfa Jazz Fest, from 24 to 27 June, Lviv

The main feature of the festival, which will take place on three stages, is that famous American jazz musicians, who are undoubtedly the kings of the genre, will arrive here. Among the best artists are:  62-year-old virtuoso guitarist Pat Metheny, winner of 20 awards in 12 categories. His guitar always sounds easy with orchestras, and even with rock bands. Pat played even with David Bowie. Or Branford Marsalis Quartet: band of 55-year-old Branford Marsalis, the classic of “soft” saxophone sound. A 48-year-old singer Eddie Rosner continues Frank Sinatra vocal school. Another surprise is that the American pianist Michael Aben will arrange a workshop: with selected Ukrainian musicians, he will close the festival.

Tickets: S.R.O. – 250 UAH, full ticket – 450-3500 UAH.

U-Park, 6 and 8 July, Kiev

U-Park Festival will take place at the NSC «Olympiyskiy”. Its headliners will be Red Hot Chili Peppers and Muse, who will present songs from the new albums. On the first day not only English-American duo The Kills and British Nothing But Thieves will perform, but also The Hardkiss from Ukraine. It’s still a secret who will be playing on the second day before Muse, but the Ukrainian band, as previously planned, will not be here. Almost all well-known Ukrainian rock bands were included in program of another festival, which will take place on the same days. Therefore, the line-up will consist solely of foreign bands. Besides music fest audience may enjoy a large number of food, lounge area where you can relax while waiting for the band.

Tickets: 1000-2500 UAH (for one day), a two-days ticket – 2100-2700 UAH.

“Fine Misto (city)” festival, from 7 to 10 July, Ternopol

The festival will take place at the airport, where on three stages over 70 rock bands will perform. The headliners will be the winners of “Eurovision-2006” – the Finnish band Lordi, the Swedish Pain, Moldovan Zdob si Zdub, Belarusian Brutto, as well as our The Hardkiss and “Бумбокс”. On “Light scene” you can hear mainly young bands – Vivienne Mort, «One in a canoe», Sinoptik and daKooka. And on the «heavy» – Eskimo Callboy from Germany, Adept from Sweden and “Порнофильмы” from Russia. On the last day of the festival on the big screen will show the Euro 2016 soccer finals, which will begin at 22:00.

Ticket: 560 UAH for four days (place in the camp for the additional fee and with your tent – 150 UAH).

Atlas Weekend, from 8 to 10 July, Kiev

At the Atlas Weekend music festival on VDNKh about 130 teams from Ukraine, Russia and Europe will perform. The headliners are Ivan Dorn, BB, «Бумбокс», Red Snapper, The Tiger Lillies, «Сплин», «Аквариум», Apocalyptica, GusGus, 5’Nizza and dozens of other musicians of various genres – from hard rock to electronic music.

Concerts will go almost around-the-clock on five stages. Starting from 15:00 till late night there will be bands playing live music. Lounge areas with DJs will work all night long. Interestingly, the Atlas absorbed «Країна мрій» festival, which will not be held this year. And in one of days “Jazz Koktebel” will own the scene. Of the additional entertainment: sport and photo zones, a large food court. You can spend the night in a tent camp, which will be right here, seats will be enough, because the organizers have given half of the complex to the fest.

Ticket for three days: 990-8000 UAH (later tickets go on sale each day separately).

Zaxidfest, from 19 to 21 August, Rodatychi village

The main open air of the Western Ukraine will take place in the village near Lviv. Its headliners: Crystal Castles – Canadians, performing experimental electronic music; Enter Shikari – British rock band, positioning itself as a “positive aggression music” performers; as well as the oldest German industrial metal  band Oomph!. They rock without sentimentality, their music is powerful and a little mechanized. From Ukrainian bands: “Vopli Vidoplyasova”, “Pianoboy” Jamala and Belarusian band of Sergei Michalko – Brutto.

Ticket: 690 UAH for three days.

Maria Nesheva, EMPR

Original article in Russian is available here.

Tags: Culture EMPR