Cultural Donetsk

Whether we want or don’t want it, we like it or not, but Donetsk is slowly rolling back in development. Still, licked streets cannot replace the mass stoppage of enterprises, which is also frightening because thousands of specialists have already left the hopeless city, and this often simply does not allow a qualified restart of production - an example of this is DMP - from accident to accident.
Low prices for socially important goods do not compensate for the decline of trade itself - only this year the entire Amstor hypermarket chain and the wholesale and retail Bridge were closed, and an affordable communal apartment (water, rent and garbage rates increased in price in September) still did not stimulate any sorts construction in the city, not counting a few stands, in fact.
However, for those who, like a frog drowning in milk, are trying to wallow, a minimum of possibilities is quite satisfying to eat, there is. The main thing is not to be lazy. But to say the same about spiritual food, alas, doesn’t work out. Here, nothing depends on a single person. In addition to the last resort, as always - to leave.
The cultural life of the capital of Donbass is in a coma, there is nothing to say about the periphery - the patient is unconditionally dead.
Today two main concert venues of the city are closed - Palace of Sports "Friendship" and Palace of Youth "Youth". Both of them, by the way, also suffered a lot from the warfare. Moreover, if there are still rumors about the reconstruction of the Youth Palace - not today, so tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, well, certainly in a year, but in a maximum of five. Then about "Friendship" it's a complete silence.
Other scenes - an opera house, a place of elite performances and a circus - the place of the most accessible concerts - work according to their profile. Plus Drama Theater named after Artyom. Only.
Concerts happen only in the open air - Shcherbakova Park and Sq. Lenin. Previously, the Olympic stadium, but something in it stalled. This imposes its own specifics - free of charge and seasonality. That is, the cultural, one might say youth life of the city, dies with the first fallen leaf.
And if at first Donetsk was still visited by stars of the second magnitude or even the first, but which were released, then now these are solid nonames, popular or simply known to a very limited age audience. There are, apparently, two reasons. Sanctions and a steady decline in solvency of special districts of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Accordingly, the repertoire is extremely scarce. This is just pop. About dance groups - if you remember the performance in the opera ballet Sukhishvili before the war - there is nothing like this now.
Something alternative takes place in the Philharmonic of the city, but it is still different, not massive.
Absolutely all tours of artists of all levels pass by Donetsk. Starting from Rammstein, who could have peered into pre-war Donetsk, ending with Pavel Zibrov. No one can afford to stain the reputation, with the exception of purely commercial projects, designed for the fastest possible gain of dough.
Accordingly, there are no local famous artists. What fame is there in our grim swamp. Where would the money for PR, record albums, promos come from. These investments cannot be returned. After all, even an all-Ukrainian tour is impossible from Donetsk.
So, amateur performances are still held in high esteem, as always in the first place, children's groups performing classics and something for the malice of the day. Everything is possible for children, they will not be punished. According to this: for the participation in collectives promoted before the war, all sorts of Rodnichki and Rosinkas, there is still a parental stubborn struggle associated with large expenses for training and for costumes, which are very expensive. The award is fame in very narrow, farm circles and a trip to the Russian Federation for some kind of competition (but there are different opportunities, you can really “take a shot” there. Which, of course, smiles at the few).
So, in cultural terms, Donetsk now stands on three unshakable pillars up to now, as old as the whole sublunary world - the Opera, the Drum and the Philharmonic. Little ones come to help them - Makeevka Youth Theater and Puppet Theater. And the kittens - dozens of small-town Palaces of Sports, contributing a bit to the cultural life of the region.