After more than 250 days of assaults from Russian forces, Ukrainian resistance is taking more surprising forms. In an attempt to reconnect to their pre-invasion cutting-edge techno scene a group of young activists have been organising “repair raves” to attract people to help with the massive clean-up effort, dancing together while they do it.

Back in August, it was estimated that over 100,000 Ukrainian houses have been destroyed, but also over 700 key cultural facilities and 20 youth centres are now in ruins. The teens and 20-somethings who would be clubbing in these spaces are now flocking to volunteer to clear rubble, and repair infrastructure at strategically targeted raves, all while dancing to their favourite DJs.

The group of young activists and music lovers behind Repair Together are joining a long line of grassroots design activists drawing on joy, humour and friendship – what we refer to as pleasure tactics – to attract and sustain a people-powered movement that is helping to repair a war-torn country.

A singer plays the synthesizer and sings inside the Yahidne House of Culture during the Rave Cleanup event on July 23, 2022 in Yahidne, Chernihiv Region, Ukraine. Repair Together is a volunteer initiative to rebuild villages that were damaged during the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began February 24th, 2022. Image: Alexey Furman / Getty Images

Volunteers of the Repair Together initiative clean the debris inside the Yahidne House of Culture during the Rave Cleanup event on July 23, 2022 in Yahidne, Chernihiv Region, Ukraine. Image: Alexey Furman / Getty Images

Volunteers of the Repair Together initiative clean the debris in Yahidne, Chernihiv Region, Ukraine. Image: Alexey Furman / Getty Images

A DJ plays inside the Yahidne House of Culture during the Rave Cleanup event on July 23, 2022 in Yahidne, Chernihiv Region, Ukraine. Image: Alexey Furman / Getty Images

What is the ‘repair rave’ movement in Ukraine?

For those new to this term – a rave is a dance party (often free, sometimes not entirely legal) where DJs play electronic music (mostly techno) to people who are committed to dancing together – and dancing hard.

After the recovery began in many of the war-ravaged towns, a group of young passionate ravers started hosting targeted repair raves to meet the need for community labour. As winter approaches, the need for clearing rubble and building housing is becoming increasingly urgent. The most recent Instagram post from Repair Together invites followers to join the raves now focused on Kyiv.

In an recent interview with Dazed one of the organisers, Marina Grebinna, shared that the raves grew from 50 volunteers at their first event in Yahidne in July 2022, to hundreds travelling from as far afield as the USA more recently.

Grebinna explains they were cautious about planning parties in places where people had died:

“But it was a good way to involve a lot of people, and we really wanted to make volunteering seem like a lifestyle choice… Now, after three months of work on this project, we see a lot of familiar faces. A lot of people do it on a regular basis now.”

Young volunteers from the ‘Repair Together’ gather next to bonfire at the end of the day after cleaning the rubbles in houses that were destroyed during the Russian invasion, not far from Ivanivka village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, 30 July 2022. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY

Young volunteers from the ‘Repair Together’ initiative dance after finishing cleaning rubble from houses destroyed during the Russian invasion at Ivanivka village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, 31 July 2022. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY

Volunteers of the Repair Together initiative take a break by the Yahidne House of Culture during the Rave Cleanup event on July 23, 2022 in Yahidne, Chernihiv Region, Ukraine. Image: Alexey Furman/Getty Images)

Young volunteers from the ‘Repair Together’ initiative play music as other volunteers listen after finishing cleaning rubble in houses that were destroyed during the Russian invasion, at Ivanivka village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, 31 July 2022. The volunteer initiative ‘Repair Together’ is made up mostly of young Ukrainians living in Kyiv and other parts of the country and some foreigners. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY

Volunteers of the Repair Together initiative cook food by the Yahidne House of Culture during the Rave Cleanup event on July 23, 2022 in Yahidne, Chernihiv Region, Ukraine. Image: Alexey Furman / Getty Images

Responsive, creative, community-driven events like these have two powerful effects. The first is for those directly affected by the violence of war – reconnecting to one another and to a culture and music that they love, resisting the physical and spiritual oppression of war.

The second is for those who have become desensitised to the tragic news of the ongoing conflict, who are drawn in once again due to the seeming incongruity of the pleasure alongside the violence and loss. The idea that people could be enjoying themselves – even raving – during wartime efforts to restore some sense of “home” doesn’t fit with what we consider a picture of conflict, grief, and suffering.

#repairtogether pic.twitter.com/jDf9ViesTm

— Dasha Di (@style_with_di) September 3, 2022

Dancing the talk

The Repair Together events are a perfect example of the kind of grassroots design activism that is not instantly recognised as activism.

Volunteers connect to one another through music, but also spend time listening to stories of the survivors in these towns as they work, bolstering their resolve to create their “new Ukraine”. Visual communication (collages on social media, videos of events) are all invitations to combat the paralysis of oppressive violence and be a proactive part of this future.

It is a beautiful example of the design futuring I research and teach – where people share detailed parts of the futures or society they desire, and then get their hands dirty building it together – not waiting around for it to be done for them/us.

Volunteers from the ‘Repair Together’ group attending the rave event dance while cleaning up the local House of Culture that was destroyed during the Russian invasion, in Ivanivka village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, 03 September 2022. Around three hundred volunteers gathered for ‘Rave Toloka’ event to clean up a destroyed during the Russian invasion local House of Culture with the DJs performing in Ivanivka. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY

A volunteer from the ‘Repair Together’ group attending the rave event dances while cleaning up the local House of Culture that was destroyed during the Russian invasion, in Ivanivka village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, 03 September 2022. The group of young people, most of whom before the Russian invasion were into Ukraine’s nightlife party culture, in the past months has been cleaning and repairing war-damaged buildings in the Chernihiv region, helping to restore Ukrainian communities which were under Russian occupation. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY

Volunteers from the ‘Repair Together’ group attending the rave event dance while cleaning up the local House of Culture that was destroyed during the Russian invasion, in Ivanivka village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, 03 September 2022. Calling their gatherings ‘Toloka’ and relying on people’s donations and their own funds, the initiative that once started as a small group now gathers hundreds of people on weekends. Chernihiv region was one of the most affected regions in Ukraine, becoming a battlefield with many people killed and buildings destroyed, and was partly under the Russian occupation from the beginning of the Russian invasion until early April. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY

Young volunteers from the ‘Repair Together’ initiative dance after finishing cleaning rubble from houses destroyed during the Russian invasion at Ivanivka village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, 31 July 2022. Chernihiv region was one of the most affected regions in Ukraine, becoming a battlefield with many people killed and buildings destroyed, and was partly under the Russian occupation from the beginning of the Russian invasion until early April. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY

oung volunteers from the ‘Repair Together’ initiative, together with the local residents, clean rubble from a house that was destroyed during the Russian invasion, at Ivanivka village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, 30 July 2022. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY

Volunteers from the ‘Repair Together’ group attending the rave event dance while cleaning up the local House of Culture that was destroyed during the Russian invasion, in Ivanivka village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, 03 September 2022. EPA-EFE/ROMAN PILIPEY

These repair raves sit within a rich history of activism that takes on surprising forms, intersecting with cultural events in new ways, and involving people beyond fundraising, rallies, or petitions by focusing on what design researcher Lenskjold refers to as denoting “collaboration rather than persuasion” in this 2015 journal article.

The daytime clean-up rave by the initiative Repair Together. Young Ukrainian volunteers travel across #Ukraine helping locals clear up and rebuild bombed-out homes but also bringing some good music pic.twitter.com/IQ9xXPku0L

— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) August 20, 2022

Parties with purpose, and transitional neighbourhoods

The direct community clean-up, design, and rebuilding of the Repair Together movement mirrors the creative collaboration of post-quake Christchurch residents. After 80% of the central city was destroyed, and over 10,000 houses demolished, the “urban recovery and transformation” took surprising forms such as washing-machine-powered dance-o-mats, and port-a-loo beautification.

Several years after the quake, chair of the Christchurch Transitional Architecture Trust Dr Barnaby Bennet said,

“Hundreds of temporary and transitional projects continue to pop up in the city. International interest in forms of adaptive urbanism and temporary architecture has led to media outlets such as The New York Times and Lonely Planet hailing the vibrant and innovative nature of these projects as a symbol of recovery.”

Earnest activism is over, bring on the pleasure

Fatigue and paralysis are common responses to overlapping crises and horrific information.

This is especially true for long-term and overlapping struggles. If your actions and activism don’t bear fruit then it is hard to keep it up. A common approach is to burn hard and burn out, with the next batch of volunteers following suit. This has been endemic in environmentalist fights and certainly exists in all battles against systemic problems like racism and sexism, which at times – even with small wins – seem insurmountable.

But activism can take surprising and joyful forms, intersecting with cultural events and ways of being together that actually energise, connect and inform people.

We need to learn from these creative approaches – especially as anti-protest laws (particularly relating to climate activism) continue to escalate. DM/ML 

This story was first published in The Conversation.

Clare M. Cooper is a Design Lecturer at the University of Sydney.

In case you missed it, also read The Womanly Face of War: A Women’s Month exhibition about art, womanhood and Ukraine

The Womanly Face of War: A Women’s Month exhibition about art, womanhood and Ukraine