A DJ table found in the rubble: Brave! Factory plays on the eve of Independence Day for the seventh year running

Brave! Factory takes place on 22–23 August at the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kyiv. It is the seventh year running that the independent festival of brave music and art has played on the eve of Ukraine's Independence Day.

The programme was published on the festival's own site.

This year's bill holds more than 50 artists, at least 16 of them from abroad — two days and six stages. The large-scale art programme returns, this time curated by Oleksii Sai. Brave! Factory Epilogue with Acid Pauli and Viken Arman runs as a separate event.

A stage assembled from what survived

The character of the festival is best told by the story of Depo, the stage hidden among the trees. It has been rebuilt this year: guests will be shaded by the original covering from the Metrobud era of 2021. And the DJ table, found in the rubble and restored, is what the organisers call a symbol of fighting circumstance.

Saturday at Depo opens at 13:00 with Lisovskyi, who runs the labels FIB Records and Lisosmuha. At 16:00 comes Uruguay's Kino, a resident of the Phonotheque club, and at 19:00 the Lithuanian duo DUST present their debut live show.

Independence as shared DNA

"When Independence is the shared DNA of a country and a festival, there arises a natural wish to be collectively capable of supporting that independence not only with brave art but with the resources needed to defend it," the organisers wrote, announcing their own fundraiser for partner brigades.

This week the festival also announced a raffle of 35 tickets — exactly the number of years Ukraine marks on 24 August. Among the Ukrainian names on the bill are Serge Jazzmate and Roman K, plus a live set from Hidden Element, the stage project of sound producer Ihor Kyrylenko.

As reported earlier by ONE//FM, the festival announced the first part of its line-up at the start of August.