Today, a ticket to a concert in Kyiv can be purchased a month and a half before the event — or during the final week. A party that once started at night now begins at 6:30 PM because of the curfew. A small club can afford to experiment with a new artist, but even there, a mistake comes at a high cost. And for a musician, writing good music is no longer enough: at the same time, they need to understand promotion, visual communication, distribution, and how to build their own community.
Over the years of the full-scale war, Kyiv’s concert life has not simply adapted to air raids, blackouts, staff shortages, and curfew restrictions. At the same time, the role of clubs and small stages has changed, as have audience behavior, the path of a new artist to their listeners, and the importance of music communities.
Pulse of Kyiv spoke with members of the FUSION JAMS music community, the band Hyphen Dash, and Anastasiya Vahanova — a lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences and a member of the music programming advisory board at Pepper’s Club and Caribbean Club — about what it takes today for a concert to happen, for an artist to find their audience, and for a venue to survive yet another unpredictable season.
Stability Has Become a Luxury
Pepper’s Club resumed operations in May 2022. Anastasiya Vahanova recalls that at the time, the team was looking for musicians willing to perform in support of fundraising for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and many agreed to play on a charitable basis. Since then, both Pepper’s and Caribbean Club have directed part of the proceeds from every concert toward supporting the military, while the events themselves, Vahanova says, give people a few hours to catch their breath after anxious nights.
The two venues experience instability in different ways. During the first blackouts, Caribbean had a generator, so people could come to a concert and charge their phones, while Pepper’s found it more difficult to operate without backup power. On top of that, there are staff shortages and unpredictable ticket sales.
“Planning anything in advance during wartime is impossible, and yet it is still happening,” Vahanova says.
For example, tickets for the concert by Oleksandr Polozhynskyi and the band “Tri Troiandy” at Caribbean began selling a month and a half after the announcement, whereas at Pepper’s, which operates almost every day, visitors are more likely to make their decision closer to the event.
The clubs’ schedules have also changed. Caribbean, which previously operated as a nightclub, has moved its parties to the early evening because of the curfew — disco parties can now start at 6:30 PM. Daytime formats have also emerged, including Saturday performances by the “Chornyi Kvadrat” theater at 3:00 PM.
Ticket sales alone are not enough to keep a club running: the concert program has to work together with the kitchen and bar. According to Vahanova, neither venue “would survive even a week” on ticket sales alone — she describes this as a crisis-mode survival strategy during wartime.
“If I were to look for an analogy, I would compare it to an airplane flying through turbulence. The main thing is not to panic and to stay on course: no one knows how long it will last, but the crew has to get the plane to the airport. Management right now is about resilience and creativity, not flying on autopilot,” Vahanova says.
Good Music Is Not Enough
The problem exists on the other side of the stage as well. Members of the FUSION JAMS community say that finding a strong musician today is easier than building an audience for them.
“Today, it is not enough to simply be a strong musician. You also have to be a bit of a producer, a bit of an SMM specialist, understand PR and marketing, and know your way around distribution — and even all of that still doesn’t mean you’ll manage to find your listeners.”
This is especially evident when working with improvisational music — the genre around which FUSION JAMS originally began building its community. At first, the team lacked a contemporary jam format and a platform for musicians to network; later, they needed a space for listeners, their own label, educational formats, and live shows. Gradually, an entire infrastructure grew around the jam sessions.
Hyphen Dash speaks about a similar problem. The band’s frontman, Myshko Birchenko, says that simply releasing music and waiting for people to discover it is no longer enough: an artist also needs to build their own world and a way of communicating with their audience.
“Music creation needs to happen in an inseparable connection with communicating the artist’s worldview. And right now, it is especially important to communicate your visual taste alongside your music.”
These do not necessarily have to be music videos: Myshko talks about videos shot on the cheapest digital camera, album covers, or series of images that immerse the listener in the artist’s world.
Yevhen from Hyphen Dash points to another challenge — balancing creativity with its promotion. According to him, Ukraine still lacks a reliable development path for a music band, so many independent artists are forced to test different approaches through their own experience.
“With many decisions and approaches, we learn through our own experience and mistakes, shaping this path ourselves.”
Under these circumstances, a community becomes something more to a musician than simply a network of professional contacts.
Community as Part of the Infrastructure
The story of Hyphen Dash is closely connected to FUSION JAMS. The musicians say that the community developed alongside them and gave them the opportunity to test their own music on a live audience from the very beginning.
FUSION JAMS, in turn, says that during the war, the role of such a community has become even more important.
“War is a time when solidarity and support between people matter most. A community provides that — it brings people together and creates something new.”
The team strives to create an environment where musicians do not feel afraid to ask for help, meet other artists, or find people with whom they can eventually form their own band.
But as FUSION JAMS grew, another problem emerged: at some of the larger jams, it became harder for newcomers to find the courage to step onto the stage.
“When you are just starting out, some of our jams can simply feel intimidating.”
That is why the team brought back regular intimate jam sessions, where new musicians can play alongside more experienced ones and learn the culture of improvisation. These gatherings now take place every two weeks.
Why the City Needs Small Stages
Hyphen Dash particularly notices one of the differences between the Ukrainian and European concert industries when performing abroad. According to Myshko, Europe has significantly more small venues where artists can test their music and develop with less financial risk. At the same time, even some of the smaller venues there have better technical equipment, while the cultural sector as a whole receives more systematic support.
In Ukraine, the market is less saturated, so it can sometimes be easier for a new artist to attract attention.
“For example, in Berlin, where we have performed many times since 2022, there are simply tons of events every day — tons of jams, tons of concerts in different styles, many of which already have an established audience. And there, if you want to get attention and attract your own people, you have to do much more in terms of communication than you do in Ukraine,” Myshko says.
At Pepper’s, the intimate format is also used for experimentation: you can try an acoustic program, an unusual lineup, a joint performance by artists who have never played together before, or invite a performer without an established audience. But even in this format, a mistake is costly today.
“Music programming is data analysis, a love of music, faith in potential, and a little bit of gambling. During the war, we cannot act as freely as we used to, so we mostly program projects that are already familiar to audiences,” says Anastasiya Vahanova.
One of Pepper’s experiments is “Inside the Music: Brunch Edition” with Pavlo Shylko — a family-friendly musical brunch featuring stories about the history of different musical genres and live performances. According to Vahanova, the format has not yet become economically successful, although the team considers it a program worth continuing.
From 50 People to Several Thousand
Small and large stages do not necessarily exist separately: an intimate venue can become an artist’s first step toward a much larger audience.
Anastasiya Vahanova gives the example of Schmalgauzen. About five years ago, one of the band’s first solo concerts at Pepper’s drew approximately 50 people. Later, for two consecutive years, the musicians held five or six sold-out shows at Caribbean Club — around 3,000 tickets sold in total.
At the same time, the choice of venue depends not only on the artist’s popularity but also on the program itself. The same band might play a rock concert at Pepper’s and then take the stage at Caribbean with a symphonic program.
At a larger venue, the cost of experimentation is higher: rent, technical equipment, and promotion all add to the expenses, so established formats are more often chosen.
FUSION JAMS, however, continues to experiment with large-scale shows, building them around the audience’s trust in the community itself and in its format.
“We are very happy that we have managed to bring so many great people together around us who trust our choices and are willing to take risks with us.”
For the team, larger venues mean greater responsibility, but at the same time they offer more opportunities for experimentation. At FUSION JAMS, they value both an intimate jam in the courtyard of “Kashtan” and a large-scale show at the circus equally.
“Often, at the very end, there comes a moment when people start creating the magic themselves. They get up from their seats, dance near the stage, or even come up on stage and dance together with the musicians.”
An Audience That Has Started Supporting Its Own More
FUSION JAMS says that most of the community’s growth happened during the years of the full-scale invasion. At the same time, the team noticed that Ukrainians had begun paying closer attention to their own culture, which gave the project additional motivation to grow.
“We feel that we are needed. We feel that the sense of inferiority toward any other country is gradually fading, and people are starting to support our creators like never before.”
Alongside this, the role of concerts themselves has also changed. At FUSION JAMS, they believe that cultural events today should have a charitable component. According to the team, together with their audience, they have already raised more than UAH 6 million to support the Ukrainian military.
For Caribbean Club and Pepper’s Club, charitable giving has also become a permanent part of their work: the venues allocate part of the proceeds from every concert to supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
For Hyphen Dash, performances have also taken on a different significance since 2022. Myshko says that concerts have become more emotional, while the opportunity to perform their music has become a way of asserting the presence of Ukrainian culture.
“When you have the opportunity to play your music — both for our listeners and for international audiences — it is a kind of manifesto of the existence of Ukrainian culture, of our existence as artists.”
Abroad, another change has come into play: since 2022, Ukrainian musicians have gained more opportunities to perform on international stages.
Between a Festival Invitation and an International Career
Since 2022, Hyphen Dash has had more opportunities to perform at international festivals and showcases. Myshko says the band used these performances as an opportunity to speak about the war and the importance of supporting Ukraine.
At the same time, greater attention to Ukrainian artists does not automatically translate into an international career. Polina Maiboroda from Hyphen Dash says that it is indeed easier for Ukrainian performers to get onto an international festival lineup today, but an invitation on its own does not guarantee further success.
“A stable international career can only be built if the product is unique and can interest or surprise an international audience, rather than being a copy of an existing artist or group. It is also very important to have a professional team.”
Yevhen Puhachov from Hyphen Dash also points out that the Ukrainian scene now has an experience that cannot be separated from the war. According to him, even where the wartime context does not appear literally in the art, the events experienced over the past few years influence the creative work of Ukrainian artists.
“Because of the war, our artists and creators are experiencing an unprecedented amount of internal conflict and existential questioning in their creative work, even without obvious manifestations of the wartime context in the work itself. So, despite numerous security, humanitarian, and financial challenges, we are not facing a crisis of meaning.”
What Will Have to Be Built After the War
Despite the emergence of new communities, venues, and formats, Myshko from Hyphen Dash believes that the Ukrainian music industry still lacks a comprehensive system.
“If we compare the Ukrainian music industry with what a music industry should be, then the Ukrainian music industry does not exist.”
According to him, it needs “honest, transparent, and understandable development based on quality role models,” as well as an institutional system in which every participant has their place and the opportunity to develop.
For now, some of these functions are being taken on by artists, clubs, and music communities themselves: they create platforms for new musicians, launch labels, explore new concert formats, and build their own relationships with audiences.
And stability in this system increasingly means something other than simply keeping things unchanged. As Anastasiya Vahanova puts it, the opposite is true: to remain stable today, you have to constantly adapt.
Photos provided by the people featured in the article
