Chervona Ruta festival of Ukrainian music rocks Kharkiv for 14 nights (06/08/97)

Chervona Ruta festival of Ukrainian music rocks Kharkiv for 14 nights

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KHARKIV - The well-known song "Chervona Ruta" may instruct that you shouldn't search for the flower at night, but if you were looking for the music festival of the same name that was the only time to see it.

Almost half a million people, mostly young adults, found the bi-annual festival of new Ukrainian music in Kharkiv this year between April 27 and May 11, where for 14 evenings performances of contemporary music took place only in the Ukrainian language. Two weeks later another 200,000 witnessed the finale in Kyiv during the celebration of Kyiv Days on May 25.

The All-Ukrainian Festival of Contemporary Song and Popular Music "Chervona Ruta" is dedicated to finding and presenting the best Ukrainian musical talent. The competitions are held bi-annually in one of Ukraine's eastern cities, where tsarist and Soviet Russification policies in the last centuries were most successful. Past festivals have been held in Donetsk, Zaporizhia and, in 1995, in Sevastopol on the bay where the Black Sea Fleet is located.

This year Kharkiv was chosen because, as director of the festival Taras Melnyk explained, "Kharkiv is voting this year to make Russian the official city language." He said that in Kharkiv the Ukrainian language is practically not heard. "It's as if it is not on Ukrainian territory."

Evening competitions were held at the Lysenko State Opera Theater where 260 contestants, representing 94 musical groups, performed at concerts open to the public.

The final weekend of performances on May 9-11 drew more than 400,000 people over three nights to Freedom Square, the second largest square in Europe, to hear the 1997 winners and past champions perform.

On Friday a huge crowd filled the nearly half-mile long square, back to where a statue of Lenin still stands, and enthusiastically greeted performances by past winners, including established Ukrainian stars such as Iryna Bilyk, El Kravchuk, V.V. and Skriabin.

On Saturday the winners of this year's festival were presented to a more reserved audience. The groups performed in all the popular contemporary genres: rock, pop, dance and acoustic. Some of the music was risqué, some was traditional, some avante garde.

Many times the audience did not know how to react. Tiny Katia Chili from Kyiv, winner in the pop music category, wowed the crowd with her big voice. But when co-champions, Radoslav, entered the stage dressed more for a concert of traditional music, a smattering of boos was heard, which increased as the quintet began with haunting traditional Hutsul harmonies. But it all turned to yelps of approval as the group interwove a disco drum beat and picked up the tempo.

Teen-agers from the Kharkiv area, who were asked to volunteer as dance leaders for the final concerts on Freedom Square, added to the air of festivity. They jumped and shook on platforms above the stage much like the dancers on the long-running American television show "American Bandstand," getting the crowd to clap and move to the music.

Also on hand were a pair of deejays who controlled the tempo of the show and did interviews with the winners. In addition, they acted as cheerleaders, prompting the crowd to chant "Ukraina" and to acknowledge the excellence of the music that was being performed in the Ukrainian language. Their effort backfired at one point late Sunday night as the final performances were building a crescendo of music and applause. The two deejays began chanting "Kharkiv, Kharkiv" only to hear the crowd reply in Russian, "Kharkov, Kharkov."

Mr. Melnyk, the director of the festival, said afterwards that he was not disheartened by that. He explained he realizes that it will take time for the young people of Ukraine to begin using Ukrainian comfortably among themselves. He said that what is needed now is to redirect the kids away from the onslaught of contemporary music from Moscow. "It is a psychological battle we are waging to bring prestige to Ukrainian music," said Mr. Melnyk.

Today Russian performers and music predominate on Ukraine's airwaves and music halls, and on the shelves of music kiosks. Although Iryna Bilyk and Skriabin can be seen and heard on Ukraine's radio and television, Russian performers such as Filip Kirkorov and Anjelica Varum hold at least equal sway with the populace. "With no money for Ukrainian musical performers, and with Ukrainian radio and television almost completely owned by Russian businessmen, we are in effect continuing to Russify our youth with Russian-language contemporary music," said Mr. Melnyk.

He said the point of the Chervona Ruta Music Festival is to emphasize the Ukrainian language. "Our main aim is to bring fresh names, a movement of young Ukrainian-language entertainers, to the Ukrainian youth."

But not everything was Ukrainian about this Ukrainian language festival. Many performers who sang in Ukrainian greeted and spoke among themselves in Russian. Ivan Lychan, press spokesman for the festival, was non-plussed when confronted by the irony. "You see the problem that we face," he said. "The kids find it easier to speak in Russian. They are accustomed to this."

The Chervona Ruta festival, whose slogan this year was "Chervona Ruta, You Will See How Stars Are Born," is at its heart a talent competition. The preliminary competitions took place in all the oblast centers and in Sevastopol in Crimea from November 2, 1996, through February 9 of this year. In all, 2,587 participants took the challenge with the hope of becoming the next Iryna Bilyk or El Kravchuk, who today are virtually household names in Ukraine.

Those who reached Kharkiv had access to the most high tech sound, stage and lighting equipment available and were given free room and board at the Kharkiv Hotel located on Freedom Square. In addition they received free access to stylists, choreographers, arrangers, as well as free costumes and studio time to record their songs. Chervona Ruta estimates that $1,200 was spent on each of the musicians who made it to Kharkiv, which Mr. Melnyk emphasized is still much less than is spent on preparing Russian talent.

Although final figures were still not available, press spokesman Lychan said the festival will have problems covering their expenses this year, as has happened in years past. Before the final concerts, Mr. Melnyk had estimated costs at around $1 million.

Chervona Ruta festival organizers would not reveal the financial support given by the two major sponsors, Coca Cola Amatil and Korona Chocolates, but did state that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, after much hesitation, funded the festival to the tune of 400,000 hrv. But when the concert hall at the Lysenko State Opera Theater alone rented for 100,000 hrv, that can hardly be considered substantial financial support.

Mr. Melnyk said the high costs are unavoidable. "It's expensive to put on this type of festival. The production must be of the highest quality, or it is not worth doing," said Mr. Melnyk. "If the quality is high, then the prestige will be there, and people will listen. It is the politics of image."

Photos by Valerii Buriak and Nikolai Kovalchuk.

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