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‘It Gives Hope, To Have A Festival At This Time’: Q’s With Vlad Yaremchuk, Programming Director Of Ukraine’s Atlas Festival
Humans are creatures of habit. We can get used to the most unnatural scenarios, given we’ve had enough time to adjust to them. War may be the most blatant example of this fact. Inconceivable to those who’ve never experienced it, there are men, women, and children in this world to whom war is something they’ve had to learn to live with.
Ukrainians have been facing this reality since February 2022, when Russia invaded. The invasion put a halt to live entertainment as Ukrainians knew it. But it returned!
Pollstar has been documenting the struggle to keep live experiences and social gatherings alive with the help of Vlad Yaremchuk, programming director of the country’s biggest festival, previously known as Atlas Weekend. The festival hasn’t had a normal edition since 2019, with the 2020 fest called off because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Atlas came back in a restricted format in 2021, but the war rendered any plans the following two years impossible.
This year, Atlas officially returned July 19-21 to Blockbuster Mall in Kyiv in a reduced capacity and renamed Atlas United. We spoke with Yaremchuk about the incredible effort it took to make it happen.
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Pollstar: How would you describe this year’s return of Atlas Festival? What did it mean to the organizing team, the artists, crew, and the audience?
Vlad Yaremchuk: Considering all the challenges we were facing, I would call it a miracle, but a man-made one. It took everyone’s best efforts and support to make this festival possible. We had two main goals: to make this festival happen in a safe, responsible way, and to help the country by raising 100 million UAH [$2.4 million] for the country’s defence. I am proud to say we have achieved both, but none of that would be possible without our staff, artists, partners, audience, and, most importantly, our defenders, who [fight] every single day for an opportunity for all of us to even exist, let alone live a life where festivals are possible.
It was our first festival in three years. The last one happened in 2021, during the COVID era, before the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine started. Our reality was completely different back then, so this year was full of entirely new challenges that we had to overcome together. For the team, it was an opportunity to finally work on a festival again, something we had all missed dearly.
For artists, it was important to see the biggest festival in the country return. For some, it was their first Atlas; for others, it was a return to form – their biggest performance since the war started. All of them gave the people their best when playing, as it was such a precious opportunity.
For the audience, it was a chance to relive the feeling of a festival that had been gone for a while. The vibe was very different, of course. And yet, to have Atlas again, where all your favourite artists are, and where you can meet your dear friends, is something many people missed. It gives hope, in a way, to have a festival at this time; it reminds us of what we are fighting for – for freedom, for an opportunity to enjoy music with each other.
Did the organization of the event – from booking artists to hiring suppliers and crew – resemble a normal year at all?
I wouldn’t say so. The numbers are entirely different, everyone was in it with us to make this festival a reality, and to reach our fundraising goal, so the fees and prices were very different. If we had to pay everyone their usual fees, this festival would have been impossible. When booking acts, the performance was not the only thing we discussed. Each of our artists also helped us reach our UAH 100 million goal by sharing the fundraiser on their socials, contributing auction lots, and in many other ways. They also had a say in where part of the money we raised would go. Many acts have a brigade or a unit that they supply and support, or a unit where their friends and relatives are fighting, so they were eager to push the fundraiser with us as much as possible as they knew that it would help our defenders on the frontline.
The festival was smaller than in pre-invasion times – just three days, compared to our usual five to seven, and had a way smaller capacity. In the end, we had around 20,000 people per day. It was in a new venue, Blockbuster Mall, which is the reason why we could hold the festival in Kyiv in the first place, since the venue features the biggest shelter in Ukraine: an underground parking lot with an area of 50,000 square meters. Our maximum capacity was calculated to account for a quick and safe evacuation of everyone in case of an air raid alarm.
In what ways does the Russian invasion still impact your business?
In every way imaginable. First and foremost, I would not call this ‘business’ in any way. Events, shows, and festivals in Ukraine are not happening right now to generate profit, and grow your business. We are all trying our very best to simply continue to do events, keep our teams, and maintain a cultural process. All of us are focused on using events to help the country by implementing charity fundraising in all kinds of ways. It is a very different way of running things; priorities, margins, costs, and planning are different. We have to deal with air raid alarms and russian missile and drone attacks – that means having a shelter nearby and a robust evacuation plan for each event. We have massive blackouts this summer due to Russia’s constant missile and drone attacks on our electricity infrastructure, meaning you need to have generators ready to have electricity. There is a curfew from midnight till 5 a.m., meaning no one can be outside during those hours. People don’t buy tickets early since no one is certain what tomorrow will bring, so most sales happen just before the event.
We had to move the whole festival by one week from the original July 12-14 dates, because July 8 had brought the biggest and most brutal missile attack on Kyiv yet: Russians bombed residential houses and hospitals, including Okhmatdyt, the country’s main hospital for children with cancer. These hospitals were our festival partners, and for the rest of the day, we used our social media to direct people to raise funds for them. Our team members worked shoulder to shoulder with Kyiv residents to remove the debris. On that evening, while recovering from the shock, we had to make a decision – a tough one, yet the only sensible one – to move the festival. The stages were already being built, we had to call our tech crew and rentals to stop the process and wait until further notice. We contacted our key acts to see if they could also perform in the weeks after.
We were worried that we would lose too many acts and wouldn’t be able to fill the line-up for the new dates. Yet, somehow, the next morning, we already had 80-90% of our line-up reconfirmed for July 19-21, which became the new festival dates. We had nothing but support and understanding from artists, partners and staff. It cost us enormous amounts of money, yet the festival happened. Can you imagine that happening in Europe? I certainly can’t. You can’t just move a festival by a week like that in the best of circumstances, and yet Ukrainians can do it amidst war, after a brutal missile attack. We couldn’t be more grateful to everyone who made it possible.
This year’s lineup looks like you’ve focused a lot on local/regional acts. Is that because internationals are not touring the region right now, or was it a conscious choice, because Ukranian artists need all the spotlight and space to perform they can get right now.
It is incredibly difficult to get international acts to play Ukraine right now. Most agents and artists have no idea that it is even possible, and that the Ukrainian event industry adapted to the insane reality and built robust infrastructure that makes safe events possible even with missile attacks, blackouts and curfews. Most are scared to come. Some are eager, but in the end, their families and friends can’t accept it, and everything falls apart. We also only had a few months for bookings, meaning most acts were unavailable.
Insurance is also a problem for big agencies. And yet, we managed to have Sharon Den Adel from Within Temptation as our international headliner. The rest of the band could not come due to scheduling, so she agreed to do something extraordinary with us: a young Ukrainian composer, Maria Yaremak, adopted Within Temptation’s music into an orchestral format, and Sharon would perform it for the first time on our stage together with Maria, LUMOS Orchestra and Yevshan choir. Putting that performance together was an incredible story and adventure in itself. We are incredibly grateful to Within Temptation for their consistent, powerful support of Ukraine.
We also hope this becomes a precedent and the industry notices that it is possible to play in Ukraine, and that it is one of the most incredible and powerful things an artist can do. If you come and play here, you will get the most real audience that lives on the edge every day, and appreciates dearly those who are ready to risk crossing the border to support people fighting for Europe’s freedom. It is one of the most meaningful things artists can do with their music. Ukraine is ready to accept international acts, and we hope this message reaches those who care.
At the same time, we had an incredible line-up of local acts, including legendary ones, and young ones, who started after the invasion. Ukrainian music has a lot to offer, and the demand for it is the highest it has ever been. So, even in the absence of international acts, people would hear a ton of incredible, diverse music.
Has war become a part of the daily lives of people? Is there any end in sight? How are you dealing with this insane situation at the moment?
We are in the constant process of adapting to this insane reality. These weird lives we all have are not normal in any way, but such is our reality, and we learn to deal with it; there is no other choice. We remain strong and united, but it’s been over two years, so there is a lot of exhaustion. Sadly, our future remains uncertain. I wish we could win this war on our own, but we are fighting against the biggest country in the world that’s hellbent on destroying us, and spreading chaos across the globe; it is impossible for us to win this fight alone. We are alive because of our incredible defenders, and the equipment and support our allies give us. This is why I can write this from my flat in Kyiv.
And yet, sadly, it is not enough. We need more support, and we need it now. Any hesitation and delay cost us countless lives. Some of the artists in our line-up are fighting on the frontlines and are wasting their precious and rare days off to come and play our festival, and help us raise money. Many artists announced from the stage or after the festival, that they were taking up arms, marking their last performance as civilians. We have our very best people fighting for our and Europe’s freedom. These people are making the ultimate sacrifice; they should have everything that they need to protect their homes and loved ones. It should have never reached this point, but here we are. So please, stand by us. Talk about Ukraine and stand by our side.