Nastia to skip Awakenings over War in Ukraine Protest

Nastia, the Ukrainian techno dj, has stated that she will not play the upcoming Awakenings festival in late July as she:

can not play in the same line-up with Russians who are tolerant to war in Ukraine.

The dj(s) she is referring to were not named however she has been critical of Russian DJ Nina Kraviz earlier this year. Kraviz is on the bill for Awakenings and therefore once can assume this is one of (or the only) dj Nastia was referring to.

On her Instagram page Nastia noted:

“As Ukrainian dj I can not play in the same lineup with Russians who are tolerant to war in Ukraine.

I am Ukrainian citizen with clear position. My position is much stronger and important than my business and career, so I will go to the end until the war is over. Representing Russia in silence or ignorance means representing ideas and image of it. I truly believe that proud Ukrainian artist can not perform with Russians who didn’t take a side at the same events.”

In response, Awakenings issued the following statement:

“Unfortunately Nastia has decided to cancel her set at Awakenings Summer Festival. We regret this but we respect her decision. Nastia has stated she doesn’t want to perform at our festival anymore because we didn’t remove certain Russian artists from the lineup. We would like to explain that decision. First of all, Vladimir Dubyshkin has spoken out explicitly against the war and we have proof of that. Second, we see that Nina does not explicitly speak out against the Russian war against Ukraine, however, we’ve had several conversations with Nina personally and she has been clear on her position to us. Based on these confidential conversations we decided not to remove her from the line up and up to this point we still stand behind this decision. 

We as Awakenings spoke out clearly against the war immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early this year, changed the name of our former area Z to area U and made a large donation to Giro 555 in aid of the victims of the war in Ukraine after our Awakenings Easter events. Our position on this matter remains the same and we will again donate to Giro 555 after our Awakenings Summer Festival. This regardless of Nastia’s decision. We stand by Ukraine.”