Chapter 5 · 4 years · Cancelled again

2021

Renegade

No tickets, no organizers, just the principles. A Renegade Burn by a lake in the Kyiv region, on the dates of the burn.

The year at a glance. Tap a moment to read its part of the story.

60

people at Renegade Burn Ukraine

1

effigy, Ohon Baba by Alexander Milov

Renegade Burn Ukraine

Tents by the lake

In 2021 Burning Man was cancelled again. Kurenivka went Renegade: on the same dates as the burn, on private land by a lake in the Kyiv region, with the Ten Principles and nobody in charge but the people who came.

Earlier that summer, on 31 July and 1 August, Kurenivka ran its own stage at Kyiv River Rave, Richkovyi Rave, in Vyshhorod on the Dnipro: 48 hours non-stop, forty Ukrainian DJs on three stages, with real barges and floating cranes as the set. The Kurenivka stage had sets by Toma Rybka, Ro Rousseau and the camp’s DJs.

In July Merman finally met the public, not in the desert but in Kyiv: a twelve-metre swimmer of 288 wooden blocks strung on eight steel rods, rising from the ground on the observation deck by the People’s Friendship Arch, and later by the River Port, free for everyone to see.

Renegade Burn Ukraine followed the spirit of the American Plan B: no tickets, no organizers, no infrastructure and no services, a camping trip where everyone looked after themselves and shared with others. About sixty people came. There was music and there was art, but what everyone remembers is the feeling: a home among your own people, cosy and close.

On the night of the Burn the effigy, Ohon Baba by sculptor Alexander Milov, burned on the shore, reflected in the water.

Track of the year

Mamay b2b Vozhd at the Kurenivka Stage, Kyiv River Rave, 31 July 2021.