Kyiv
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A silhouette moves down a dark alley covered in snow and ice, towards the muffled beats coming from the concrete buildings of central Kiev. Inside, a dim red light obscures the faces of the dancing crowd, their sweaty bodies pressed against each other.
The red glow is reminiscent of the low-light torches used by soldiers to avoid enemy detection on the front lines with Russia, hundreds of miles to the east. But for the ravers at Closer, one of Kyiv’s most famous nightclubs, partying is a way to forget the war, even if it’s just for one night.
“It’s what helps us stay sane,” Valeria Chablis, 32, told CNN at a closing event held to commemorate Maslenitsia, a Slavic festival celebrating the beginning of spring. “We say it’s like a balance between war and life.”
The war destroyed much of Ukraine’s cultural life. Since Russia invaded in earnest in February 2022, many music venues have closed, and some artists have evacuated or joined the military.
Still, Ukrainians still flock to parties. The Closer, housed in a former ribbon factory, closed at the start of the war, but reopened just eight months later and has held musical events almost every weekend ever since.
After a harsh winter, made worse by repeated energy blackouts and under the constant threat of missile and drone attacks, dance has become an outlet for feelings of the chaos of war, Chablis said.
“People are really tired,” she says. “Coming here and spending time with friends brings people together.”
She said rave culture remained alive, if changed, in Ukraine’s major cities and emerged as a powerful form of resistance during the brutal four-year war with Russia.
“I didn’t die,” she said. “We will honor Putin’s grave.”
Ukraine riots and resistance
Even before the war, Ukraine’s electronic dance music scene had long been intertwined with notions of resistance.
Following the collapse of the Soviet empire in the 1990s, a new era of independence fostered an openness to Western cultural influences, alongside now-famous European electronic music hotspots like Berlin.
Massive parties, squat raves, and festivals proliferated across Ukraine and Crimea, providing a platform for freedom of expression and musical experimentation.
The emergence of rave culture in Ukraine culminated in the mid-2010s with the formation of Kyiv’s cult Cxema parties (large-scale raves held in urban warehouses and under bridges), which later became internationally known.
The campaign is about “creating a safe and democratic space” and “building a community” for disaffected young people suffering from economic instability in the aftermath of Ukraine’s 2014 revolution, which ousted then-president Viktor Yanukovych for what protesters saw as widespread corruption and abuse of power, Cxema founder Slava Repsheyev told CNN.
“The resistance was against the inertia of the old regime and the Soviet Union,” Lepsheyev said. “After a full-scale invasion, the vector of resistance has changed and is now directed against the enemy. We will dance in unity to stay strong,” he said.
“Given the horrors of this war, it is especially important for us to have the opportunity and desire to continue having fun,” Repsheyev said, adding that parties have become a place of escapism.
But it’s difficult to organize a rave during wartime. Due to the curfew, Cxema events will be held during the day and will be scaled back due to safety concerns over large gatherings, Repsheyev said.
Organizers of club events across Ukraine agree that the war has had an impact on rave culture. “There is more energy in this party,” said Anton Nazarko, co-founder of Some People, a group that runs nightclubs in Kharkiv. “(It’s) such a wild energy.”
Kharkiv is just 30 miles from the Russian border, and Nazarko told CNN that Ukrainian soldiers sometimes participate in the club’s events, which are usually held every two weeks.
“In the morning, our community friends are fighting in the trenches, and in the evening they come to our party,” he said. “They’re dancing like it’s their last day.”
Nazarko said Some People’s original headquarters in Kharkov was bombed just days into the war, but no one was killed. He said team members sold their belongings and borrowed money to develop their current home, the New Culture Center, in 2023.
Nazarko said he felt that ensuring the continuation of cultural life in Kharkov was a contribution to the war effort.
“This is very important for Ukraine, it’s very important for the city. The only thing the Russian military wants is for all the people to leave,” he said. “So they bomb the electricity (infrastructure) and we can’t live a normal life.”
The nightclub, housed in a Soviet-era refrigerator factory, is equipped with a generator to allow the rave to continue during power outages, and Nazarko said the space also serves as an air raid shelter for local residents.
Nazarko and his team plan to expand the center by building an exhibition hall and movie theater. “If the war had not started, we probably would not have embarked on this big project,” he said. “We don’t know how much longer we have to live…We don’t have time to dream.”
But the harsh realities of war have kept some people away from Ukraine’s club scene.
Daniel Detkom is currently a petty sergeant in the Ukrainian army and previously served as a rifleman and drone operator. But before the war, he was a famous DJ and techno music producer.
His Kiev-based electronic music collective Dots hosted popular parties that invited DJs from around the world, Detcom told CNN. They were often surprised by how much Ukrainian ravers like to party. “They said, ‘What’s wrong with our dancers? They dance like crazy!’
However, as tensions between Ukraine and Russia escalated toward a full-scale invasion, Detcom began preparing for conflict. He practiced at a local shooting range and also took tactical medicine classes.
Despite his successful career as a DJ, he joined the army as soon as war broke out. “I didn’t think of it like an option or a choice,” Dettcom told CNN. “It just felt right.”
As he waits to be reassigned to the front lines, Detcom told CNN he misses the “vibrant” rave community that existed in Ukraine before the war. “These were happy, carefree days,” he said. “Life will never be the same again.”
While Detcom was able to continue making music on his laptop during his military service and even hosted a few Dots parties during his time off from the front, raving is no longer so casual.
Organizers now usually ensure a medical team is present, but due to the fear of Russian airstrikes, he said he always brings two first aid kits with him when he goes to a rave and usually stays sober.
Rave culture has evolved. “It’s a daytime party now,” Detcom said. “This new generation of clubbers, ravers and DJs have never really partied at night.”
But in other ways, the war created opportunities for Ukrainian DJs and electronic music producers.
Denis Yurchenko, art director of Kultura Zvuku, a DJ and music production school in Kiev, said: “I feel that there is a huge upswing for young artists right now. Every day I meet new faces.”
He told CNN that fewer foreign artists are coming to Ukraine to perform in nightclubs because of the ongoing conflict, meaning more space in event lineups for Ukrainian electronic music producers eager to experiment.
Yurchenko added that during the war with Russia, music labels were keen to promote Ukrainian artists, and funds earned from the sale of Ukrainian electronic music compilation albums and nightclub events were used to support the war effort.
Detkom, Nazarko, and Yurchenko all perform at or host raves aimed at supporting the war. “This is definitely about 100% resistance and support of our country,” Yurchenko said.
At Kiev’s Closer nightclub, that resistance is accompanied by hope. “We are waiting for spring,” Chablis said.
Friends hug each other on the dance floor. A young couple is kissing on a sofa in a dark corner. Despite the chill in the air, friends are smoking hand-rolled cigarettes and laughing in the club’s outdoor courtyard.
After a harsh winter and four years of war, Ukrainians remain enthusiastic.
