‘You have to hope and you have to mean it’ - Vlad Yaremchuk on how Ukraine’s Atlas Festival keeps going despite the war
Atlas Festival, the largest music festival in Ukraine, made a comeback edition in 2024 and has continued since, despite the many challenges involved in organizing such an event during wartime. While in Bucharest for the East European Music…
Atlas Festival, the largest music festival in Ukraine, made a comeback edition in 2024 and has continued since, despite the many challenges involved in organizing such an event during wartime. While in Bucharest for the East European Music Conference 2026, Atlas Festival’s programming director Vlad Yaremchuk told Romania Insider more about what it takes to put the festival together, how fundraising has become central to its mission, and the broader role festivals can play.
Established in 2015, Atlas Festival attracted more than 500,000 participants at editions held before the start of the war. Following its 2021 run, which he describes as having involved “an immense amount of luck,” the festival returned two years ago on a smaller scale, with a capacity of 25,000 people.
Its comeback was made possible after organizers found a venue in Kyiv with a large shelter capable of safely accommodating the entire crowd during air raid alarms. At the time, the entire industry was adapting to wartime realities, learning how to operate under curfews, as well as how to rely on power generators when needed, Vlad Yaremchuk explains.
“Obviously, to bring it back, the first question always was ‘can we do it safely?’ and, ideally, ‘can we have a big enough festival?’ Because we're quite a big team. It wouldn't really make sense for us to make a small one. So, it was like, ‘we need to be able to have a safe, relatively big festival.’”
After the venue was locked in, that became a reality. The next question was what purpose it would serve and how its return could be justified.
“Obviously, concerts, music, culture are really important, but still, having a festival like that during the war is a bit of a different deal. And for us, it was, OK, we want to make sure that we give back to the country in a meaningful enough way where we feel like this was worth it, not just in terms of giving jobs, and giving artists an opportunity, and people a mental relief, but it became all about fundraising and the charity aspect of it.”
“The donation culture in Ukraine is crazy”
The festival had built strong relationships with sponsors from its launch in 2015, and grew before the war by positioning itself as a platform offering brands a distinctive way to engage audiences. “With the wartime editions, we also use that superpower to raise money,” he says. About half of the funds raised come from businesses that donate, while receiving promotional benefits, and the other half comes from individual contributors. The fundraising campaign extends far beyond the festival itself, running for around four months and reaching a much larger audience, with more participants contributing remotely than attending the festival in person.
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Charity auctions have become a standard part of public events, be they book presentations, concerts, or festivals in Ukraine, he explains. The proceeds, merchandise, and even bar sales go to causes like the defense against the drones, “which is what enables us to even have a chance to have a festival.”
In 2024, the team set a goal of raising 100 million hryvnias, approximately EUR 2.3 million at the time, and successfully achieved it, continuing to raise additional funds beyond the initial target. This year, the aim is to raise 150 million hryvnias, representing a 50% increase on the previous year and close to EUR 3 million, for the Dronopad project, helping to protect military personnel and civilians across Ukraine from drone strikes.
This takes place in an environment where people have less money each year, making fundraising increasingly difficult, the programming director explains. Despite this, the team continues to challenge itself to raise more. “The fundraising the donation culture in Ukraine is crazy; it's how everyone tries to find engaging, creative, different ways to get people to donate; it's truly fascinating. If I want to export something out of Ukraine, it's this culture, to really show just how good festivals and concerts actually can be at raising money for a cause.”
The past years have been fueled by adrenaline and urgency, but now, as the war drags on, the challenge is adapting and finding new ways to engage people and supporting each other in what has become “a bit more of a grueling, exhausting marathon.”
“An audience that is the most grateful”
The festival’s comeback edition in 2024 was organized rapidly, with the rulebook written as everything came together. “We needed to figure out how to do a festival at wartime. You don't really have a guide for that. We had to write it ourselves, but that helped us in a second year to iterate on everything, make it so much better.”
With the basics covered, the focus has shifted towards other challenges, among them the programming.
“It's almost exclusively Ukrainian artists, local artists. Every international booking, and we've had one per festival so far, is my personal fight as a programming director. I have to talk to hundreds of artists and agents. And then ultimately, if I do get one, that is a big luck, coincidence, and a lot of work. It's a lot of time you need to spend just to secure one artist. It's not only about finding the one who is ready to go for it, which is quite a leap of faith. You don't really have to go to a country at war like that; you don't have a reason for that unless you do see it as a mission and you have it in you, and the support of your family, colleagues, partners, children, and parents; so it takes a very special artist because financially it's not a very good deal.”
International acts would need to fly to Poland and then take trains to reach Kyiv. It can take at least four days just to do this, bringing up questions about whether a Ukrainian appearance can be fitted during or off their tour time.
“It's all challenges, and the only saving grace of it is one. This is the most special show you can ever play to an audience that is the most grateful on this planet, because they don't really get this anymore and they miss it so much and they feel lonely and isolated from the world because people can't come. There is a war. And so, then, when someone comes, it is a special occasion. Even if people don't go to the festival, when the artist comes, the whole country talks about it for days. It feels like something is happening; it reinvigorates people. They're like, ‘Oh, and they were sleeping in a shelter because there was a fight, and they visited the hospital, and they played the festival, and they gave an interview.’ There is this buzz that we just don't get otherwise; that already gives people some positivity, and they don't feel as isolated and alone in this world as they might feel any other day.”
For the artists, the experience can bring a change in perspective, he says, pointing to the role that music can play. “I feel like everyone will be welcomed in Ukraine, music professionals or artists. Ultimately, it's not just them doing a service to us. I think they come back better people. It gives them such a perspective shift. It reminds them how much they can actually do with their music, how meaningful it can be for people, life-changing even sometimes.Some people going to see their favorite artists that came to them during the war can be the only thing that would let them last another year or two. When they already feel like it's so difficult, this can be something that will make a difference.”
The first two years after the invasion saw a boom in fresh names, but now a lack of money and available infrastructure have taken their toll. “It's simply that we are fighting a war for four years, an existential one, so it's difficult.”
Surprising the public can be difficult as fewer names emerge at the moment “just because of how difficult daily life can be,” he explains. “We have to come up with all kinds of collaborations, bringing bands back, coming up with something to keep it interesting because we work with such a limited pool.”
It’s a creative challenge, but, at the same time, the absence of Russian and international artists also means “people finally have the attention towards their own and the artists, some of them who have been working for five-ten-fifteen years, who always performed in Ukrainian, who never played Moscow out of principle, never enjoyed that much popularity, but now they are finally reaping the benefits of the position they've been holding for a while.”
“It's not entertainment, it really is not”
Amid the daily grind of war and news fatigue, concerts can remind people they are not alone, he explains. For four years, these moments have been a lifeline, helping people cope with “the bombing, the stress, the news and all of it.”
“It's not entertainment, it really is not. It's just that, because you can wake up in your regular day, you start scrolling the news and it beats you down, you are tired, you can feel very isolated but, when you go to a concert, it reminds you that you are surrounded by people who share this insane experience with you, that everyone around you lives in this war as well, and they have just as hard of a time as you, but here you are at the concert, shouting your favorite lyrics, and you look each other in the eyes, and you know that you understand each other when you remind yourself that, ‘hey, we are in this together,’ and we have our identity, culture and music.”
He also points to a deeper responsibility of festivals to uphold values like democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression.
“In situations like these, you just really see what the meaning of it all is; that it's not money, not entertainment, that there is so much more to it that usually is overlooked. Again, I hope to see that in Europe, other festivals and many of our festival colleagues are now seeing that they have the responsibility; they are doing something that is so much more important than just giving music to people, having fun, and having a two-day escape. No, it is about meanings, and in the political environment that we have in the world right now, the festivals are a place where you can actually talk to people and be like ‘something is changing, and we need to stand for the values that we have, for democracy, for human rights, for the right of expression.’ There is a lot of exchange between our festival and the festivals outside of Ukraine. We all have something to share with each other.”
The Music Ambassadors tour & documentary
In March 2022, one week into Russia’s invasion, the Ukrainian Association of Music Events created the humanitarian initiative Music Saves Ukraine. The project didn’t come with expectations attached to it, but rather a wish to help. They reached out to their network of music and festival colleagues to share the word about what they were doing and ask for support.
“The response was so big that then we realized that this can be a long-term project, and it became so. I am absolutely confident that Music Saves Ukraine wouldn't exist in 2026 if it were not for the amazing support of some of the European festivals, some of them who are going to be with us for the fifth year in a row at the time when it is not such a pressing topic anymore.”
Last year, among many events that diverted attention from the war in Ukraine, the organization lost its support from USAID, which was closed down. It had helped them fund the work they were doing and direct all the funds raised to the causes they support. “We relied on that funding and then, all of a sudden, it was gone and the team became smaller. Some of our team members are serving in the military. It's like everything was going crazy at the same time. If it wasn't our partners coming to us with money that they've been working so much to raise, we would have thrown in the towel.”
Since its establishment, Music Saves Ukraine has been organizing the Music Ambassadors tour, which brings music industry professionals to the country. Their experience is captured in the form of a documentary that shows “Ukrainian culture, music, and struggle from their perspective.”
“Every tour is very different because it captures a very different period in the war, and things change constantly.” The latest tour, which took place in December 2025, brought visitors to the music schools near the front lines. In many cases, the schools have been destroyed by bombings and are kept going in temporary venues and private homes. “It's so important to both the teachers and the children that even when all the instruments have burned down, when everything was bombed, somehow they continue doing it. We had the opportunity to come and support them.”
The delegation attended a concert that children played at 8:00 am. “The children were so happy and excited because, all of a sudden, they had this international audience coming in and they want to listen to you. That's just not something that happens there. They don't really get visitors. Yes, those are the places that were liberated, that were taken over at the beginning of the invasion and then ultimately liberated, but they've been damaged so much, in so many ways.” He calls it “the most humbling concert of our lives,” pointing to the vital role music schools and teachers play in providing children with a sense of normalcy amid the war.
The experience of the tour is captured in a documentary. The most recent one screened at the East European Music Conference and can also be watched here.
During the tours, the participants can see the real impact of their efforts and the realities of the war. “It is probably the single biggest thing that makes change because people come back from Ukraine different, inspired. It is a depressing experience because we really do show the consequences and how it all looks without sugarcoating it. It is a tough journey to make, but by the end of it, everyone leaves seeing how Ukrainians, day to day, make the impossible because there is no other choice. It kind of reminds you that there are things in life worth fighting for and that we do absolutely have the means to do that as festivals, as people of culture.”
Although the tours aren’t easy to organize, as “the time is never right” and the attendees are “always immensely busy,” they show a perspective that he hopes will be more relatable to international audiences.
“They talk to their teams, the families, and the media, and just become our ambassadors because people from Ukraine have a hard time explaining what it's like while having it be relatable. People who have never heard an explosion in their life can't relate to people who have been hearing those explosions every single night for years now. But when it's someone who didn't have to be there, who made a very bold choice to come to Ukraine to see it with their own eyes, they come back home, and they can speak from the perspective of a person from a peaceful European country.”
It’s a collective effort, driven by achieving what looks impossible. “At the worst of times, it's nice when you see that when things are really bad, we are capable of extremely impressive things and we can get together and we can do the impossible and, if no one was doing this impossible, we would just not exist as an initiative anymore.”
Despite the isolation that war can bring, having partners nearby can be reassuring, especially when the strain begins to take its toll, he explains.
“There are those that are with us till the end and that is a very reassuring feeling, especially when the exhaustion sets in, and when everything goes so long, and it's been so difficult, when you know you're not alone, which you want to feel like, because you feel like there is a wall around Ukraine because there is war and bombs here, and it's not that we live in an insane reality others don't, but when you have people coming in and experiencing it with you, there are people who care, there are people who can't fully comprehend but they try to and they make the bold choice to come. That is something that keeps us from feeling like we are alone in the world, and that is so important.”
“We never know what the challenges will be, we should always be ready to face them”
With the next edition of Atlas due to take place this July, the festival team is preparing for the following one while keeping in mind the unforeseeable. Can he afford to think as forward as 2027? “Yes and no. We have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow. And that is always the case. We always prepare as if it will happen. There is no other way to prepare for it, because if you don't prepare for it in a way that it will definitely happen, you just can't put it on. But at the same time, any day something can happen, and we have to adapt.”
At its comeback edition in 2024, the team had to move the festival by one week as just days before the festival was set to begin, bombing in Kyiv struck a children's hospital. “We had to make a very difficult decision, one that we didn't know if it was even feasible to do, but that was the festival's comeback.”
Everyone involved, from the staff to international artists like Within Temptation, was determined to make the festival happen, recognizing that a failed comeback is not something they could have afforded.
“We never know what the challenges will be, we should always be ready to face them. Although I’m having some discussions about international artists for 2027, at the same time, I never know how this edition will go. You always exist in this very weird double thing where, on one hand, we work really hard, and we already talked about 2027, and then I have no idea what tomorrow will bring. You have to hope, and you have to mean it, and then, whether it happens or not, you can't influence it, so you just prepare your best, and adapt, and that is it.”
“My hope is that people would go that extra mile to discover the Ukrainian music that is being created right now”
He describes 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, as a “tragic, difficult year for everyone” but also as one of the best for Ukrainian music and culture. Artists produced a surge of new work across genres and many embraced the Ukrainian language. For many artists, creating music was more than artistic expression and became a way to cope with the realities of war. While some artists managed to play international stages, there are also those fighting on the front line, and their number has increased a lot, he explains. “When we did the 2024 festival, for quite a lot of acts, that was their last performance so far; after that they joined the ranks and they are fighting.” At the same time, travel restrictions leave other artists without the opportunities to reach wider audiences.
“We have to rely on the listener to go look it up because the artists are not in a position to promote themselves or to come play for people they would have loved to. Then there are artists who have died in this war, and their music deserves to be heard because they made the sacrifice that we hope no one in this world has to do. My hope is that people would go that extra mile to discover the Ukrainian music that is being created right now.”
“We can’t take what we have for granted anymore”
For those interested in a snapshot of life in Ukraine and the perspective of international visitors who chose to visit the country, he recommends the Music Ambassadors Tour documentary. It is also a reminder not to take freedom, democracy, and values for granted, he explains.
“We can’t take what we have for granted anymore; it needs to be actively protected. Sadly, in Ukraine, it is being protected with blood, and our hope is that others won't have to pay the price that we are paying, but that means that they need to face the fact that something is happening, that they need to prepare for it, and that they need to protect what they hold dear.”
Many assumed that the peace, stability, and freedoms of the past several decades would continue automatically, but that is not guaranteed, he cautions.
“That is not a given. It is up to us to keep it that way. If anything, I hope the Ukrainian example can be inspiring: the resistance that we give, the friendships that we've built. I can't wait for the future, when the war is over, and we can actually fully engage in those amazing partnerships and friendships that we've built throughout the invasion. Finally, for many in the world, we now exist as a country on the map. Finally, people are paying attention to our language and culture; they see that we have something to offer, that we are not here just to ask for support. We want to help, we want to take the best from you and give you our best. I really want to see that future where we can just focus on that, and there will not be an emergency, a war, where we could just build the future Europe together with the experience that we are currently getting. And I'm sure that we will get there.”
(Photo: Miluță Flueraș, courtesy of East European Music Conference)
