KaZantip Electronic Music FestivalHistory/Background:KaZantip also known simply as "Z" is an electronic dance music festival that took place every year from 1992 to 2013 on the Crimean Peninsula; from 2002 to 2013 it was held in the village of Popovka, near Myrnyi. The entrance ticket is called a "viZa". It takes place for 2–3 weeks of August and about 100,000 "paradiZers" visit each year. There is a cult of orange-coloured fashion and yellow suitcases associated with the festival. The festival has featured up to 300 DJs on 14 dance floors playing techno music 21 hours a day
The festival is named for the Kazantyp headland near which it was held from 1995–1999. During that time the festival took place inside the turbine hall of the unfinished Crimean Atomic Energy Station near Shchelkino. The festival was moved to the Vesele (also referred to as Veseloye) settlement in 2000. Since 2001 the festival has been held in the Crimean town of Popivka (also referred to as Popovka). The president, creator, and initiator of Kazantip (Republic Z), is Nikita I (actual name, Nikita Marshunok). In the beginning the festival was very low-key and was nothing more than a bunch of windsurfers partying after a hard day's wave riding. But later Nikita decided to include a techno and trance music party to celebrate the end of the season. This gave birth to the festival as it is today. The 2014 edition called "Z22" took place in Anaklia, Georgia due to the politically unstable situation in Crimea at the time. The 2014 festival in Anaklia proved controversial from the start, as members of the Georgian Orthodox Church protested the event due to fears of drugs and nudity at the festival. The head of Georgia's National Tourism Administration also publicly claimed that he was fired over a dispute with the church about the 2014 festival taking place in Anaklia.
Despite the political unrest and regional violence over sovereignty in the Crimea in recent years, its promoters are posting in their official website it is returning in 2016:
KaZantip - 2016I have never been, nor do I know anyone that has. But what I can discern from the thousands of photos, there is a strong similarity to Burning Man on many levels, including, it is predominantly the same age group; it provides the festival goers enough techno/electronic music to dangerously border-lining on massive overdose of that crap; it has many young beautiful females scantily clad; and it offers a lot of young folks the ability to go nude in public.
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