Tuesday 21 June 2011

Saint-Petersburg, Russia (Part 1)

"I’m living in Saint-Petersburg. Nowadays our scene is growing up very fast: a lot of new bands are forming, a lot of new people come to the hardcore shows.

There is a unique place in our city. It was opened last summer and it’s called Vegan Club. As you can understand from the title of this place it is specialised in popularising a healthy lifestyle and an ethical attitude to animals and nature. A lot of activities take place there: exhibitions, movie viewing, yoga etc.


The majority of hardcore shows take place in V-Club since it opened. Shows such as Youth of Today (below), Rise and Fall, Eye for All, Nine Eleven, At Half-Mast, Zann, Jucifer and many shows of Russian bands.


Last summer a great fest took place near our city in Rocket Skate Park. It was called Rocket Hardcore Fest. Many Russian, Ukrainian and Belarus bands participated in it. There were about 20 bands there. This August Rocket Hardcore Fest will take place again.



Rocket Hardcore Fest wasn’t a unique big show in our city. From 2005 to 2009 in Kronstadt (seaport-town near Saint-Petersburg) there was an open air event which happened every summer. Unfortunately it can’t take place in the open air anymore because there were some unpleasant accidents.



However there are some negative aspects of the fast growth of the scene. There are a lot of people who visit hardcore shows regularly just to have some fun, to mosh etc. They are not interested in music, they don’t know the roots of punk culture and they only listen to local bands which their friends play in. They make tattoos, buy fashion clothes, even become straight edge and vegan just because their friends have made these choices. The term “hardcore” becomes fashion. There are many bands that call themselves hardcore without understanding what hardcore is really about."

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