After holding the first Ukrainian ethnic music festival, Krayina Mriy (Dream Country), for two years in a row, Oleh Skrypka – the leader of the band Vopli Vidoplyasova – in conjunction with the whole Ukrainian rock movement finally came up with a full-scale rock event: the Rock Sich music festival is now set to take place this weekend on Trukhaniv island.

Originally, “sich” was the old name for fortified areas created by Ukrainian Cossacks as protection against invaders, the most famous of these being the military and political organization “Zaporizka Sich,” situated on Khortytsya island. The “Rock Sich” festival, then, according to organizers and Skrypka, symbolizes a fortress of Ukrainian rock-Cossacks aimed at protecting modern rock from the “pop oppression.”

In fact, Skrypka had voiced this notion once before during an interview with the Post, claiming that pop stifles quality rock and alternative music from developing in Ukraine, and that this was the reason he, together with his band VV, had no plans to record another album after “Fayno,” released in 2000. Luckily VV have changed their minds and are about to release their new CD while Skrypka himself chose not to give in to “pop oppression” but instead fight it in his own ways – such as holding a music festival that would resemble the famous European open-air festivals both in quality and organization.

Such declarations have yet to prove themselves; however, so far the upcoming event looks very promising.

The festival, organized by Skrypka jointly with a company called Event Management and supported by the Ministry of Culture, will take place on May 6 and 7, featuring as many as 44 bands and performers from various genres – traditional rock and blues, indie, nu-metal, hip-hop and folk rock just to mention a few – performing on three different stages. In fact, every visitor will be able to choose the most suitable stage according to his or her musical tastes. The “Barzha” (Barge) stage situated right on the beach will accommodate rock, blues and indie, the “Rotonda” will feature hip-hop, reggae and electronic music while “Vezha” (The Tower) will offer gothic-rock and nu-metal. A detailed schedule of the concerts at each stage will be available at the festival.

The obvious headliners will be Vopli Vidoplyasova, and Borshch, a band that includes two VV members as well as hip-hoppers TNMK. But in the spirit of a true European festival, Rock Sich won’t go on without foreign participation – the British band Carpathiana will also join their fellow rockers. Among other festival participants are both established and new Ukrainian bands: Boombox, Viy, Kvadradzhesima, Schastya (Happiness), Factychno Sami (Practically Alone), Ot Vinta!, Verhovna Zrada (Supreme Treason), Rollicks, Fakultet (Faculty), White, Farbovany Lys (Painted Fox) and many others.

In fact, Vopli Vidoplyasova themselves got their rock-career start at a festival held at a Kyiv club, so it’s quite natural that now they are the ones trying revive the rock movement in Ukraine. Besides, by holding the festival, Skrypka & Co. will destroy another stereotype: The location of Rock Sich at such a big outside venue is unusual for Kyiv – open-air rock festivals are held in other Ukrainian cities such as the Mazepa-Fest in Poltava and the Taras Bulba festival at Dubno, but in Kyiv festivals as well as rock concerts are primarily held at Maydan Nezalezhnosti or Sports Palace.

As usual, a number of bars and kiosks will be open on the show grounds selling some food and sponsored beer – Slavutych in this case. However, knowing from previous experiences that those stalls usually sell little more than chips and peanuts and hardly any freshly prepared food, I advise you to bring your own – especially if you plan to spend the whole afternoon at the site.

Though already accused of threatening the ecological situation on Trukhaniv island by holding the festival at all, the Rock Sich organizers have thought of ways to keep it clean in advance and already announced the presence of cleaning teams and ecology-protection brigades as well as special programs such as “Clean Rock,” which will allow a concertgoer the ability to exchange garbage they’ve collected for beer, T-shirts or even CDs.

While the first festival is yet to take place, the organizers have already announced the second Rock-Sich, set for 2007. This time it will take place not only in Kyiv, but in several cities across the country.

May 6-7. 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Free admission.

For more information call 561-2615

or go to www.rocksich.comby Alexandra Matoshko, Kyiv Post Staff Writer