Ukraine’s Biggest Outdoor Event Combines Climbing and Live Music

Deep in the heart of Ukraine, a group of amateur climbers is trying to build a new outdoor culture inspired by the sense of community surrounding California’s Yosemite National Park. Atop a steep granite cliff overlooking a river about two hours’ drive west of Kyiv, hundreds of people pitched tents on a festival camping ground. By day, they climbed the rock face, swam in a nearby reservoir, or enjoyed stand-up paddling. As evening fell, live bands and DJs took over the stage as rock and electronic music drifted through the forest.

The Stoned Climbers festival, which took place last week in the Zhytomyr region, is Ukraine’s biggest outdoors event combining climbing and live music. Like many public events in wartime Ukraine, the festival blended ordinary leisure with reminders that the war is never far away. Visitors received multiple air raid alert notifications on their phones throughout the weekend. Soldiers on leave quietly blended into the crowd, while organizers directed all profits from this year’s festival to a fundraising initiative supporting Ukraine’s Azov Brigade.

Unlike last year, however, no Russian drones or missiles crossed the sky above the campsite on their way toward Kyiv. The volunteer-run festival was launched in 2023 by about 15 friends who had spent more than a year climbing together after becoming fascinated by Yosemite’s climbing culture. The U.S. national park has long been regarded as one of the birthplaces of modern rock climbing, where climbers built a counterculture around sleeping in tents, living out of vans, and spending months on the granite walls of the valley.