Get the latest gossip
Inside ∄ – the secret Kyiv techno club that ‘does not exist’
Once predicted to rival Berghain, wartime has seen the ‘club that doesn’t exist’ find new purposes as a bomb shelter and frontline fundraiser. But can it survive Ukraine’s new mobilisation drive?
As Anastasiia Syradoieva awoke to the sound of air raid sirens and missile strikes in Kyiv on 24 February 2022, the first place she thought to seek shelter was ∄, the techno club housed in a former brewery she has run since its opening in 2019. Photograph: Nicholas Potter/The GuardianBy October 2022, weekly daytime techno parties – dubbed “community events” – were back on the programme, with guests asked to make a donation to the Ukrainian army at the door instead of paying an entry fee. At a community event on a brisk Saturday afternoon in early May, an energetic, scantily clad crowd on the outside dancefloor in the club’s back yard cheers and whistles to bassy breaks with euphoric piano stabs.
Or read this on The Guardian
