KaZantip-2009, a forum of youth culture, was held in the Crimea for the 17th time. Its organizers introduced numerous novelties this year and yet there is an opinion that KaZantip-2009 was not nearly as good as it was, with the turnout rate dropping by 30 percent from last year’s level.
The world crisis also had an impact. “Republic Z” was attended by the citizens of Turkey, Italy, France, and the US. The Crimean festival is far cheaper compared to a similar youth event on Ibiza Island, so many visitors came mainly from Moscow and St. Petersburg as before, when the festival was held in Shcholkino. There were also numerous guests from other regions of Russia and Ukraine.
The festival’s opening alone attracted at least 30,000 guests, although the admission fee was rather high: a multiple-entry ticket for 1,500 hryvnias, a single-entry ticket for 500, and the festival’s opening and closing nights cost 700 hryvnias. The festival “Republic Z” has been held in the Crimea on an annual basis since 1995. In the first several years it was held in the city of Shcholkino on Cape Kazantip — hence its initial name.
The first thing noted by Deputy Minister for Youth, Family Affairs and Gender Policy of the Crimea Oleksii Cherniak was that this time the festival was not accompanied by fights, drug abuse, or poisoning. According to the data of the Chief Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Crimea and local medics, no accidents were reported during the festival.
In general, the level of organization of KaZantip has considerably improved. For example, Ukraine’s Security Service detained a 43-year-old citizen of Belarus, who brought drugs to the Crimean festival. His car’s trunk contained different psychotropic substances, which were packed in different bags and wrapped in paper, intersperse among the personal things of the owner. According to the members of the police task force, the cardboard box contained approximately 1,000 Ecstasy pills and 0.5 kilogram of amphetamine. The guest told the law enforcement officers that he was intending to peddle drugs among holiday-makers during the KaZantip Festival.
The official opening of the KaZantip trance party took place in the village Popovka near Evpatoria in the western Crimea. The main stage of the “orange republic” featured DJ Paul van Dyk (Germany), fireworks were set off, and a fire show was held to celebrate the opening of Z-17. One of the world’s most talented DJs, Armin van Buuren (the Netherlands), performed at the closing party of the festival. The spirit of KaZantip-2009 was also affected by the architectural changes: the Tower of Lovers was constructed and each Thursday weddings took place in Z-heaven (the ball titled “Show of Princesses” was held).
The Nadiia Charity Foundation decided to distribute among the participants of KaZantip nearly 100,000 free condoms and personal lubricants. The chairman of the foundation Oleksandr Yatsiuk told mass media representatives that at the opening of the festival the organization’s activists started distributing booklets on HIV/AIDS prevention. “The booklets provide information in accessible form concerning the questions about HIV/AIDS that the readers may have,” Yatsiuk said. Booklets of a different kind explained the basics of emergency medical care to be provided to persons suffering from an overdose of opiates or other drugs (a total of some 85,000 copies of these booklets had been printed).
Civic organizations responded to the criticism of KaZantip-2009, for example, from Leonid Zhunko, the representative of Ukraine’s president in the Crimea. Last year at a session of the Council of Ministers he said, “The Crimean authorities should not assist in the spread of drug abuse and prostitution. KaZantip is a hotbed of these things in the Crimea.
“We are saying that it attracts young people, but in fact it is a den in which various drugs are spreading, the remainders of morals are perverted among young people in general, and it is a shame for the entire Crimea. There syringes are scattered all over the place like sand on the beach, and we pretend not to understand this. Moreover, we give them four hectares of land free of charge in order to legalize this prostitution, dissoluteness, and drug abuse.”
Therefore, in order to bring the world-renowned festival into legal framework, the Crimean Council of Ministers allowed the organizers (the Center of Youth Initiatives “Zebra”) to work on a development project regarding four hectares of beaches on the Evpatoria coast that were leased to them. The prosecutor’s office tried to appeal against this decision since it was passed without any auction as is stipulated by law, but the government’s objection was reasonable: what kind of tender can there be if “Republic Z” is the only one in the world?
Viktor Plakida, head of the Crimean government, explained that in response to the concessions made by the Crimean government, the organizers of KaZantip will invest more money in the development of their business and thus will improve the infrastructure in the village of Popovka, which has been the venue for the festival in the past years.
“In this situation we should support the organizers of KaZantip and offer them to invest money in reasonable projects that will help connect this territory to the water supply and sewage system and resolve other questions,” said Plakida. “It is equally unprofitable to make KaZantip move to another place for those who want to come here and spend money here. If we cannot offer any alternative, we should not ruin what has already been created. But the organizers of the festival are also right in that they cannot invest money in development unless they have the land.”
“One should sign a lease contract for a reasonable term, rather than 45 years, so that we would not chase them asking for something. It should be valid for three years and contain a program of cooperation with the local authorities.”
For example, in 2006 the Crimean Prosecutor’s Office demanded from the Council of Ministers to cancel the permission to hold the KaZantip Festival; and the Simferopol Interraion Nature Protection Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal case against the Center of Youth Initiatives “Zebra.” (It was charged with violating the standards of legislation on bridge construction, because the installation of illegal constructions on the beaches of Popovka caused damages to the tune of nearly 900,000 hryvnias).
The Council of Ministers partially satisfied the prosecutor’s protest, i.e., they did not close the festival, but undertook obligations to remove the organization and sanitary drawbacks revealed by the inspectors. However, even then and thereafter all the establishments of public catering operated on the beaches without any cleaning or sewage constructions, which was many times reported by the sanitary-hygienic service. Trade pavilions were not connected to the centralized water supply and sewage systems, which are simply missing on the beach area. The inspectors did not see any agreements on supplying and transporting of food, drinking water, or individual sanitary certificates of the public catering employees.
The peninsula’s authorities hope to receive handsome dividends from the festival. With each passing year KaZantip is evolving, transforming, and revealing new sides. The organizers are constantly repeating that KaZantip has long ago outgrown the festival status and turned into a separate state with its history, traditions, constitution, and government. Therefore, it is no surprise that many permanent admirers of the “Republic of Happiness” complain that the festival is not what it used to be.
However, at the same time, the visitors noted that there is nothing like “Republic Z” in the world, thus electronic music lovers will continue to come to Popovka at least to hear world-renowned DJs. Despite the fact that for the first time since the project was launched the organizers carried out an extensive advertisement campaign, the turnout rate dropped by one third compared with last year, although the festival had been promoted in Ukraine, Russia, and several European countries. Mykola Karpov, director of the project, believes that this is connected with the world financial crisis: people are saving money on recreation.
The main event of festival Z-17 was its … closing party. In the center of attention was the performance of the music producer Armin Van Buuren from the Netherlands, who plays in different styles, such as progressive trance, tribal progressive, trance, and techno. On this occasion, the main dancing ground attracted nearly all the “residents” of KaZantip, so it was difficult even to simply move near the stage.
Armin Van Buuren was playing on the main dancing ground of “Republic Z” from 1.30 a.m. until 4.30 a.m. The admirers of the Dutch DJ were chanting his name and expressed their emotions with the help of shouts to which he responded with gestures that the audience was great there and that he loved his admirers. Armin’s performance was accompanied by dancing performances, fire shows, and fireworks
The dancing grounds Kiss Fm, Inside, Euro, and Burn (aka Meduza) opened after 3 a.m., and the VIP-zone Mars started working, which had free admission to celebrate the closing of the festival. The club Atrium presented the “British cinema series”: Danny Boyle’s romance Slumdog Millionaire and Guy Ritchie’s crime movie Revolver.
So, this summer has in a sense brought doubts whether “Republic Z” will continue to exist: will the festival’s popularity drop even lower next year or will its organizers manage to overcome the crisis? This depends on many aspects, but first of all on whether European youth needs the kind of festival of music and free recreation KaZantip is now or quite a different one.
