Mykolaichuk OPEN Film Festival in Chernivtsi, Vyrіi at VDNH in Kyiv, and BestsellerFest book festival in Lviv: we’ve gathered the main cultural events that will make this summer special.
Concert version of the opera “Mothers of Kherson”
June 4, National Opera
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A world-class event in Kyiv: the opera “Mothers of Kherson” by Ukrainian composer Maksym Kolomiets, created by joint commission from the Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, will be presented in the capital. The opera tells the story of two mothers and a grandmother from Kherson who embark on a journey of over four thousand kilometers across several countries and Russian-controlled territories to rescue their daughters held in Crimea. It is based on the real testimonies of women who brought their children back from Russian occupation.
The scenic world premiere will take place in Warsaw in October 2026, and the American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2027–28 season. Both productions will be conducted by the American Kerry-Lynn Wilson, who has been the music director of Kyiv Camerata since 2024.
Docudays
June 5-12, Zhovten Cinema, Kino42
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The main theme of this year’s Docudays Film Festival, “Simple Structures,” explores the fundamental pillars that help society withstand chaos, war, and uncertainty. The program features hits of documentary cinema from around the world and new Ukrainian films. Some must-see films include “If Pigeons Turned into Gold” by Czech director Pepa Luboyacki – a brave and loving film about a painful, usually hidden, page in her family’s life; the Vietnamese film “Hair, Paper, Water…” by directors Truong Minh Quy and Nicolas Grodet, which immerses viewers in the life of Cao Thi Hou, who teaches her grandchildren the language of a disappearing people; “The Blessed” by Andriy Lysetskyi about the lives of Ukrainian artists during the invasion, and others.
Kyiv Art Book Fair
June 5-7, Culture Pavilion at VDNH
The Kyiv Art Book Fair is a festival dedicated to contemporary publishing and visual culture, bringing together 53 international and Ukrainian independent publishers and authors. The fair will gather self-published and limited-edition works, art albums and monographs, photobooks and zines, theoretical works, and critical studies of contemporary visual culture in one space.
A special art section, curated by Lizaveta Herman and Maria Lanko, co-founders of the Culture Pavilion and The Naked Room gallery, will be featured. Ukrainian independent galleries will present works by contemporary artists within this section. This format aims to support important players of the local art scene and make art more accessible – not only for viewing but also for collecting.
Mykolaichuk OPEN Film Festival
June 15-20, Chernivtsi
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The Mykolaichuk OPEN festival will be held in Chernivtsi for the fifth time. This year’s program includes films that won major awards at the Berlinale, James McAvoy’s directorial debut, a new anime section, and much more – over 80 films in total. Among the most interesting new additions to the program are “Franz,” the latest film by acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland about the writer Franz Kafka, chosen by Poland as its Oscar submission; James McAvoy’s directorial debut “My Son”; “Malaga Street” by director Maryam Touzani – a Venice Film Festival hit about the feeling of home, starring Almodóvar’s muse, actress Carmen Maura, and many others.
Poetry show “SAM”
June 26, Origin Stage
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One of the main premieres of the season is the poetry show “SAM” by Vitaliy Azhnov, an actor at the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater, whose initial performances in May were sold out. Together with his team, Azhnov, who has been popularizing Ukrainian poetry through his podcast, acting school, and poetry evenings for years, is essentially inventing a new format: he brings existential love lyrics by Mykhailo Semenko, Heo Shkurupii, Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, and other authors into a club setting, combining them with modern jazz music, striking costumes (designed by Shevchenko Prize laureate Tetiana Ovsiichuk), lighting, and conceptual video art (the show’s art director is the renowned Ukrainian photographer Sonya Plakidyuk, and the director is Maksym Svets, a student of Uryvskyi’s workshop).
The result is a new genre, still unnamed, but capable of making thousands of people in Ukraine and abroad fall in love with Ukrainian poetry, showcasing all its sophistication, modernity, and progressiveness.
“Kyiv Cult” Festival
June 25-28, Small Theater
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The “Kyiv Cult” festival is an intimate festival of local art dedicated to Kyiv, its culture, and the people who created and continue to create it. The Small Theater opens its doors for live interaction with the city through art. The program will include a plastic performance by students of the Small Theater School, “While You Are Watching,” the play “Sex Education. Girls’ Version” by the Lviv theater “Lava,” the play “Empire Must Die” by the Kharkiv Puppet Theater, the city tour “Kyiv of Oleksandra Ekster” by journalist Anna Lodygina, and much more.
Ukrainomania – a review of a life
July 10, 11, 12, Zankovetska Theater, Lviv
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The production, created in collaboration between the Lviv Zankovetska Theater and the Vienna Volkstheater, is dedicated to the personality of Josef Roth, a renowned Austrian writer and journalist.
In the mid-1920s, Josef Roth visited his old homeland: Lviv, then Lemberg, and the Galician outskirts located in present-day Ukraine. A few years earlier, the writer and reporter, born in 1894 in the predominantly Jewish town of Brody, wrote in a Berlin newspaper: “Sometimes a nation becomes modern. Now it is the Ukrainians.” Almost a hundred years later, the Vienna Volkstheater, together with the Maria Zankovetska Theater, sets off in the footsteps of Josef Roth, visiting Vienna, Brody, and Lviv. This joint journey later becomes the performance, both in Vienna and Lviv.
Atlas Festival
July 17-19, Blockbaster Mall
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This year, the Atlas music festival will once again take place in the Blockbaster Mall space, where guests will find six stages with music. Among the main headliners of the festival will be the Australian duo BREATHE, also in the lineup are OTOY, Zhadan i Sobaky, MONATIK, LATEXFAUNA, and others.
BestsellerFest 2026
August 7-9, !FESTrepublic, Lviv
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The BestsellerFest book festival is once again gathering friends in Lviv this summer around the books that the whole country is reading and discussing. Three days of meetings, live conversations, new releases, and exclusives. This year, the festival focuses on twenty Ukrainian bestsellers and their authors: Artem Chekh, Artur Dron, Illarion Pavliuk, Pavlo Derevianko, Irena Karpa, Maksym Kidruk, Yevheniia Kuznetsova, Anna Bezpalaya, Pavlo Belyansky, Vira Ageyeva, Tamara Horikha Zernia, Dmytro Krapivenko, Oleh Kryshtopa, Vira Kuriko, Myroslav Laiuk, Lyuko Dashvar, Lena Lyagushonkova, Radomir Mokryk, Volodymyr Stanchyshyn, and Olena Stiazhkina.
“Vyrіi”
August 8-9, VDNH
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The ethno-electronic festival “Vyrіi,” a true discovery of last summer, returns – and promises us countless special emotions. The festival, held in the KITE space at VDNH, combines music, theater, and performance: last summer, guests were impressed not only by the performances of Benjamin Clementine, Jamala, Onuka, and the theatrical program curated by Ivan Uryvskyi and his students Tetiana Kostenuk and Maksym Svets, but also by the dress code, which helped immerse attendees in the atmosphere. This year, Alena Gudkova’s team again invites participants to play this game, as the dress code is “a condition for transitioning into a new experience.” The program and artists will be announced later.
Brave!Factory
August 22-23, Dovzhenko Film Studio
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As always, on the eve of Independence Day, the independent festival of brave music and art Brave! Factory will take place in Kyiv. For the third time, it will be held on the territory of the Dovzhenko Film Studio. The festival team has announced 11 foreign artists who will come to Ukraine this summer, including Anna Haleta from Israel, British musicians Batu, Japanese artists DJ Masda and Heavenphetamine (JP), Italian Marco Shuttle, French avant-garde stars Mezerg (FR), and Ohm Hourani from California.
Photo on the main page: Mushegh Tsiroyan