robotfunk
13th August 2007, 07:42 PM
Just got back from a 10-day trip to Ukraine for the Kazantip festival. V-King and me were invited to VJ there on 4 nights.
All I can say is WOW. In 20 years of partying I have never seen a festival or party like it. Located on the beach of the Krim sea, the organisation built about 12 stages where all kinds of dance music is played from about 11pm to 1pm. The stages themselves are beautiful, ranging from geodesic domes to a Roman arena. Every year they build a small city for the duration of the festival (5 weeks!) and only the stone ones remain for the rest of the year.
There was some incredible music, from local heroes like Dr. Spy.der (who surprised us with his incredible mix of styles and excellent mixing) to international stars like Timo Maas, Dr. Motte, Grooverider and many more.
3 of the stages were only accessible for VIPs and artists, in an area called Mars. One of them is the incredibly chilled Shanti Fly bar where DJs who were booked elsewhere on the festival were playing just for fun, and the people either danced or chilled on couches or in suspended chairs in the sun. We both did 2 short DJ sets there with other people's records.
VJing was a lot of fun. Usually in a funky UFO-shaped VJ booth on Mars but on Saturday 4th on the main stage (which only opened on some Saturdays) for Timo Maas. That night was incredible. I had feared some cheesy music from him but his great set provided plenty of inspiration for a wicked VJ set on 4 screens. It's nice to see how the Russian and Ukrainian crowd appreciated visuals. All the time people would come up to us to say how much they liked the visuals. Afterwards people were even asking for our autographs!
Russians sure know how to party. Especially the Moscow jet set can be very decadent. Most are very sharply dressed (the women barely) and like everything that is expensive. This would lead to some sharp contrasts, like seeing expensive large yachts at sea while the people in the neighbouring village would ride on donkeys. Generally the crowd is very friendly. From a European perspective they can appear rigid at first, but once you chat to them they open up and are very friendly. Some things are unusual to see for a foreigner, like women stripping spontaneously or constantly having to watch out for another champagne shower.
The women are incredibly beautiful. Save for the cleaning and toilet ladies, it was difficult to spot one that wasn't at least rather pretty. Except for a few golddiggers they are also very friendly. I'm pretty sure women going there wouldn't complain about the men either. Some Russian men can be very rude for western standards (some drunk Neanderthals) but generally they are pretty nice. The Russians there generally speak decent English so it's pretty easy to communicate, most Ukrainians only speak a handful of words though.
It was good meeting up with some other VJs like Pixelrockers and seeing familiar faces like Devon Miles. Organisation was very professional, after a VJ set you could just leave your gear in the booth because a security guard (NOT friendly types) would watch it for the rest of the day. If anything would get stolen it would be deducted from their wages. Pretty efficient deal.
I would like to thank eps for inviting us, taking good care of us, and ensuring a good time. I can only recommend other VJs to consider a gig at Kazantip.
If you are interested, I put up a little photo gallery at www.robotfunk.com/kazantip07 . I only got my first digital cam on the day of departure and haven't made a photo in over 10 years, so the quality of some pics is pretty bad.
All I can say is WOW. In 20 years of partying I have never seen a festival or party like it. Located on the beach of the Krim sea, the organisation built about 12 stages where all kinds of dance music is played from about 11pm to 1pm. The stages themselves are beautiful, ranging from geodesic domes to a Roman arena. Every year they build a small city for the duration of the festival (5 weeks!) and only the stone ones remain for the rest of the year.
There was some incredible music, from local heroes like Dr. Spy.der (who surprised us with his incredible mix of styles and excellent mixing) to international stars like Timo Maas, Dr. Motte, Grooverider and many more.
3 of the stages were only accessible for VIPs and artists, in an area called Mars. One of them is the incredibly chilled Shanti Fly bar where DJs who were booked elsewhere on the festival were playing just for fun, and the people either danced or chilled on couches or in suspended chairs in the sun. We both did 2 short DJ sets there with other people's records.
VJing was a lot of fun. Usually in a funky UFO-shaped VJ booth on Mars but on Saturday 4th on the main stage (which only opened on some Saturdays) for Timo Maas. That night was incredible. I had feared some cheesy music from him but his great set provided plenty of inspiration for a wicked VJ set on 4 screens. It's nice to see how the Russian and Ukrainian crowd appreciated visuals. All the time people would come up to us to say how much they liked the visuals. Afterwards people were even asking for our autographs!
Russians sure know how to party. Especially the Moscow jet set can be very decadent. Most are very sharply dressed (the women barely) and like everything that is expensive. This would lead to some sharp contrasts, like seeing expensive large yachts at sea while the people in the neighbouring village would ride on donkeys. Generally the crowd is very friendly. From a European perspective they can appear rigid at first, but once you chat to them they open up and are very friendly. Some things are unusual to see for a foreigner, like women stripping spontaneously or constantly having to watch out for another champagne shower.
The women are incredibly beautiful. Save for the cleaning and toilet ladies, it was difficult to spot one that wasn't at least rather pretty. Except for a few golddiggers they are also very friendly. I'm pretty sure women going there wouldn't complain about the men either. Some Russian men can be very rude for western standards (some drunk Neanderthals) but generally they are pretty nice. The Russians there generally speak decent English so it's pretty easy to communicate, most Ukrainians only speak a handful of words though.
It was good meeting up with some other VJs like Pixelrockers and seeing familiar faces like Devon Miles. Organisation was very professional, after a VJ set you could just leave your gear in the booth because a security guard (NOT friendly types) would watch it for the rest of the day. If anything would get stolen it would be deducted from their wages. Pretty efficient deal.
I would like to thank eps for inviting us, taking good care of us, and ensuring a good time. I can only recommend other VJs to consider a gig at Kazantip.
If you are interested, I put up a little photo gallery at www.robotfunk.com/kazantip07 . I only got my first digital cam on the day of departure and haven't made a photo in over 10 years, so the quality of some pics is pretty bad.