After it became clear that this edition of Brave! Factory Festival will be at the same location as Dovzhenko Film Studio after two years of using something new for the crew; many people were trying to imagine how cozy the Closer crew would make it. Because in 2021, after the years of settling at the Metrobud factory (since 2017), it seemed that the most used word at the festival location was “home”.
Well, now it’s one step closer to it. If we need to compare it with the previous year, the festival space has become more compact. The 2024 edition was still FAR FAR AWAY from the monstrosity of Metrobud (still remember that 15-minute morning walk from the Depo dancefloor to the taxi, that felt like eternity after the night of crowling and dancing), but the 2025 edition used the territory even better. This time, you can easily walk between the Garden and Depo in 5 minutes, while speaking to your friend or even making a quick stop at the food court. So, what was not the between but on the dancefloors…
It was a rare example of the festival in Ukraine after 2022, where there was no major artist withdrawal before the event. All the people from abroad made it, phew! The only visible one was, probably, the absence of Borys, but he was still at the place, just didn’t make it into the line-up.
Saturday’s schedule gave us a stroll basically between Depo and Angar (with a little look into Black Box stage). Depo was opened by Lisovskyi, the emerging Kyiv young talent, whom you should be familiar with already from our premieres section. And his signature deep and crispy sound.
Then it was the time of Uruguay. DJ Koolt (and his gorgeous pants) stepped into the scene with a bang instantly. I’m gonna say that this was one of the most dance-friendly sets of the first day. All the best things that you associate with that country and their music, plus everything that fits into it. But why speak about it if I can show you.
Speaking a bit more about Uruguay – we need to jump into a few hours ahead – Michelle! The same energy, but with a live performance. Also, that almost UK hardcore pieces closer to the end were totally unexpected (but went so great, I wish she had more of those). If DJ Koolt delivered the best set, she did the best live of the day. Easily.
Stepping away from Depo, to the techno-leaning stage, called Angar. The day was opened by Serge Jazzmate, not with techno, but with slow, but still banging acid, EBM, and dark disco. That man usually squeezes everything from his under 125 BPMs, so the monstrosity of the place just gave him more exposure.
Later was one of the most expected acts at the festival (for me, of course). Still considering their live at Strichka in 2019, THE BEST live I’ve ever heard, putting together the vibe and the music. But this time, things were a bit different for Paranoid London. Their signature dirty acid from the “Eating Glue” era was replaced with techno and bits of electro. Not in full, but mostly.. Also nice, but not THAT nice. Or maybe it’s just the stupid nostalgia talking.
While Oles and Roman K took over Angar with their techno after Paranoid London, it was time to check some other acts (you don’t want to hear about techno on Trommel, right?). DJ Plead was tearing apart Black Box stage with his mayhem (gently heated for him by Saxr, Gapon, and Monotronique), so it was time to recheck the Depo. The last one act for the day came from Trippsy from the THP crew. He took the stage from Michelle and her crazy ending just to turn it into the best example of Closer’s dancefloor in the best Closer years. One of the gentliest transitions I’ve heard. Only to turn the scene into his own mayhem. A perfect ending for the day.
The night in Kyiv was silent (thanks to Keith Kellogg’s visit, probably), so the Sunday morning was good and refreshing (if you didn’t end your Saturday at some home afterparty) – a rare thing in Kyiv nowadays. And it was just what was needed since Sunday at Dovzhenko Film Studio acquired a bit more walking…
You could have totally missed the Garden stage on Saturday (like I did, almost), but on the second day, Garden was THE PLACE. Hard to call it differently since it held a Giegling showcase. Giegling showcase. In Kyiv. In 2025. Can you believe it? (yes, yes, I know, they came with the same thing in 2024, but the situation in the city didn’t actually get better after it, or, to be honest, got pretty worse, so they’re easily earning double respect for this move).
From the light and happy intro by Serenne, a crazy selection from Cosmo, signature dreamy live from map.ache to final magic from Eduardo De La Calle (that Daft Punk was thrown straight outta nowhere!) – it was hard to push yourself to go somewhere else. Even the rain, which was expected for the whole day, seemed, decided to have some mercy for the dancers on that open dancefloor – the day was almost unusually cold for August (flashbacks to the first ever Brave!), but rain just teased everybody, phew! As you can see, we shot a few videos, but almost none of them can show the musical atmosphere. Giegling acquires much more than 59 seconds for that.
But, there were some more! Coming back to Depo, if you weren’t an early bird, the day there, probably, was divided for you between Igor Glushko and Marco Shuttle. Funny thing, from the whole Closer crew, it seems only Igor (and Bambu) were dedicated to house music at this festival (a few went into the techno side, Alex Savage and Bellis stuck to their music, Borys was absent).
And if Igor did it all with signature slow-but-solid style, that usually requires to deep dive into his set at least for an hour, Marco took the well-pre-heated dancefloor to another level. The perfect picture of the full Depo in the evening, dancing on, let’s say, Marc Ambrose’s tune. I saw A LOT of comments about this one being the best set at the festival. Can’t disagree with that, still it has a hard competition (I’m in a Giegling crew, if you’ll ask).
At the same time, some evil things were done at the Angar. Binh was showing his hardest side to the public. I know he can go into different directions; that was a day of the bangiest techno selection from his bag. Can’t say I’m a fan of that, but can’t say that when you’re playing in a location like that, you should do something different. Arnaud Rebotini took that crowd of Binh to some other dimension with his live, probably the most commented performance of the festival. And Sashaa.Shults finished the day with his (usual? at least for Brave!) techno selection. Once a year, they say…
Being held at the film studio grounds, the festival took the maximum from it in its promo and post materials. I showed you the recording of DJ Koolt already. There is much more on that channel, and also Hillmer, a part of a bit more experimental scene, did his own recap (especially useful, if you want to know what happened beside the house part of the festival)..
As usual, almost every foreign artist was glad to come and share some thoughts, while we all are waiting for the next edition on the same grounds. The Closer crew just loves to build stuff, you know…
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This article was written in Ukraine. Ukraine is in the middle of the war with Russia right now. Would be great if you could donate to the biggest Ukrainian volunteer fund here. Also, you can pick any music initiative, that is also trying to help from our list here. We’ll be stronger together.
