Country Profile: Ukraine
In a country still at war, Ukraine’s live music scene remains remarkably alive. “Despite everything, there’s clearly demand,” says Vlad Yaremchuk, booker and promoter at Atlas Festival. “People are even more hungry for music.”
The 2025 edition of Atlas Festival sold out all full fesival passes and two of its three days – a first in the event’s history – drawing around 25,000 a day to its site at Blockbuster Mall in Kyiv.
“We started planning earlier this year and built a really strong local lineup, with The Rasmus as our international headliner,” says Yaremchuk. “We even had to run a real evacuation during the first night’s headline set, which tested all our contingency plans in practise. It was challenging but everything worked, and the atmosphere afterwards was incredibly positive.”
Despite continued attacks on cities by Russia, promoters operate with established safety protocols, including alert systems, shelter plans, and onsite generators. “We’ve been doing this a long time,” says Yaremchuk. “We…
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