Kvitnu Fest: Plug pulled on hopeful Ukrainian Festival in Lviv
Disappointing news for all those who thought Ukraine had turned into something of a model state in terms of the nurturing of experimental music. Seven weeks ahead of what could have turned into one of Europe’s leading festivals in the Sound Art department, artistic director Dmytro Fedorenko pulled the plug on the original plans for Kvitnu Fest, quoting a complete lack of support from officials as the reason for the move. Instead of taking place in Lviv, Fedorenko is now preparing a reduced version of the event in its former home of Kiev, with the exact program and venues as yet unclear. The original line-up had included figureheads like Scanner and Vladislav Delay next to the crop of the cream of the Ukrainian scene. Fedorenko, who also heads the Kvitnu label, whose visually stunning and musically undaunting works have quickly gathered a dedicated fellowship even among fans of contemporary composition, is now building his trust on the support of friends and colleagues.
Here’s the official press release from the site of the Kvitnu Festival:
“As we announced before, in May 2008 we received a proposal to make festival "Kvitnu Fest : Detali Zvuku" in the end of October in Lviv. The proposition from officials was to make really big event with great artists. And we were naive to believe that there was possibility that finally at least in one city of Ukraine government support for experimental music could happen. That we can make European festival with clear communication and support from our country, when city takes responsibility for it's part of work. And now we must say that it is not even close to the truth. And we don't know when this will become true.
From the very start we have never received not one document with clear formal support statement from the city. Actually all work has never went to the real official level. And from formal point of view we have created all this "support" situation by ourselves.
At the beginning of September official city didn't solve not one general question from the list of agreements. We couldn't start advertisement company in Ukraine, couldn't choose company to deal with tech rider questions; we didn't receive money for flight tickets for artists, not even talking about guarantees to pay fees in time. In fact all control on every organizational question up to the size of flier and quantity of posters was taken from us.
After we realized that we can not make festival according to our views we cancelled all cooperation and left Lviv.
Now we can say for sure that we can't make Kvitnu Fest in announced edition. Financial part of the festival is extremely big for organizers to handle without serious sponsor. And it is impossible to find such sponsor 7 weeks before festival. We will try to save at least some part of the program with the help of our friends.
So dates are the same - last weekend of October. City - Kyiv.
Venue and conditions will be announced in Friday. For conclusion we have to say that we will not participate in any event where official logos of Lviv are present. We will not deal with any governmental structures of Ukraine ever again.”
If you feel you can be of help in any way, you can reach the Kvitnu crew at either one of these links:
Homepage: Kvitnu Records
Homepage: Kvitnu Fest
State-X New Forms Festival 2008: Entertaining and Eclectic
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