MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now to Ukraine, where the country's largest music festival returned this past weekend, after a three-year hiatus due to the all-out Russian invasion. As NPR's Ashley Westerman found out, it was more than just the music that brought people out.
ASHLEY WESTERMAN, BYLINE: Thousands of music lovers descended upon the enormous Blockbuster Mall in Kyiv for the first Atlas Music Festival to be held since 2021.
MELOVIN: (Speaking Ukrainian).
WESTERMAN: Among the more than 70 artists to perform across the three days of the festival is Ukrainian electric pop artist Melovin.
MELOVIN: (Singing in Ukrainian).
WESTERMAN: At their main-stage performance Saturday, the younger-skewing crowd sways to the music on the asphalt parking lot, and basks in the sun on this nearly cloudless 80-degree day - clearly, excited to be out living life again. That's why 25-year-old Alina Khrol is here. She came all the way from Kharkiv, a nearly six-hour drive, with her friend.
ALINA KHROL: (Speaking Ukrainian).
WESTERMAN: "We came to have some fun," Khrol says, "because Kharkiv is a front-line city."
VERA KALAMYTZ: Slava Ukraine.
WESTERMAN: "Glory to Ukraine," shouts 4-year-old Vera, clutching her father's hand as they stroll across the crowded parking lot. Eugene Kalamytz of Kyiv says of course, he weighed the risk of bringing his children to such a large, public event, but...
EUGENE KALAMYTZ: I think nobody can be safe now in Ukraine, in Kyiv, but it's our risk, and we understand it.
WESTERMAN: Organizers say they wanted to bring back the festival as a fundraiser for Ukraine's armed forces, but with near-daily Russian airstrikes on civilian targets across the country, they knew the security risk would be high, so when considering a venue for the festival's revival, organizers chose this particular mall for a reason.
So we're going down into the parking garage.
Because it has one of the largest bomb shelters in the capital city - nearly 540,000 square feet, all underground. So we're down underneath of the Blockbuster Mall, and they've essentially erected a mini music festival down here in the parking garage. There are places for people to sit. There is a stage down here, and there are drinks and food for people to buy.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no.
WESTERMAN: Alexander Merkulov lives in Kyiv and says he's here to enjoy the music, but also to show he's not afraid.
ALEXANDER MERKULOV: We need to be strong, and we need to stay alive, 'cause if we're not, we will be destroyed.
WESTERMAN: Organizers are still counting, but turnout is expected to only have been about a tenth of the 600,000 who turned out for the last festival. Still, it felt like a win. There were no air raid sirens - at least when the musicians were onstage. Ashley Westerman, NPR News, Kyiv.
(SOUNDBITE OF SABZI'S "HYDROQ B") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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