a cultural project based on Brighton's Ukrainian midsummer festival
The Kupala Brighton project, inspired by
the Kupala midsummer festival that Ukrainians first brought
to Brighton in 2022, aims to create a community around
folklore and the themes it leads us into: nature, land,
place, home and belonging. We want to bring non-Ukrainians
and Ukrainians together in creative actvities – arts,
events, conversations, landscape explorations – in
which we can share what habitats and belonging mean to us.
Most of all, we hope that Kupala Brighton's universally
resonant themes will help non-Ukrainians understand and
empathise with Ukrainians, all of whom are living with war,
wherever they are.
In August 2025, Vladyslava and Marek went to the village in the middle of Ukraine that is the deep inspiration for our project. We made this video podcast there:
Vladyslava Bondar is a Ukrainian activist, culture enthusiast, and a co-founder of the Kupala festival in Brighton as well as of the Kupala Brighton project. She grew up in the Poltava region of Ukraine, in the centre of the country, and studied in Kyiv. Vladyslava came to Sussex as a refugee in April 2022, and now works as a tour guide.
Violetta Korbina grew up in Khmelnytskyi, in the west of Ukraine, and moved to the UK in 2018. She graduated with a master's degree in astronomy from the University of Sussex in 2023, works as an insolvency administrator, and has been a key volunteer with the local Ukrainian organisation Stand 4 U since 2022.
Marek Kohn is a writer with an Anglo-Polish background; his books include The Stories Old Towns Tell, Four Words for Friend and Dope Girls. He has been involved with local Ukrainian cultural activities since 2022, helping to launch and organise a series of Razom ('Together') gatherings at the Rose Hill. marekkohn.info
We all live in the city of Brighton & Hove, on the south coast of England.
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Kupala Brighton's co-founders, Vladyslava Bondar and Marek Kohn, talk about our project in this video:
in an interview for Lossi 36, which covers society,
politics and culture from Central Europe to Central Asia,
'Kupala
is coming home to Europe',
and in an article
first published by Gramarye,
the journal of the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales,
Fantasy and Speculative Fiction.
In August 2025, Vladyslava and Marek went to the village in the middle of Ukraine that is the deep inspiration for our project. We made this video podcast there:
It's on YouTube,
with an English subtitle option, and Spotify.
There are audio-only versions on Apple
and Amazon
/ Audible,
plus a highlights page here.
We'll be holding an event, Silence and Sirens,
around it at the Rose
Hill arts hub in Brighton on 18 June 2026.
Vladyslava Bondar is a Ukrainian activist, culture enthusiast, and a co-founder of the Kupala festival in Brighton as well as of the Kupala Brighton project. She grew up in the Poltava region of Ukraine, in the centre of the country, and studied in Kyiv. Vladyslava came to Sussex as a refugee in April 2022, and now works as a tour guide.
Violetta Korbina grew up in Khmelnytskyi, in the west of Ukraine, and moved to the UK in 2018. She graduated with a master's degree in astronomy from the University of Sussex in 2023, works as an insolvency administrator, and has been a key volunteer with the local Ukrainian organisation Stand 4 U since 2022.
Marek Kohn is a writer with an Anglo-Polish background; his books include The Stories Old Towns Tell, Four Words for Friend and Dope Girls. He has been involved with local Ukrainian cultural activities since 2022, helping to launch and organise a series of Razom ('Together') gatherings at the Rose Hill. marekkohn.info
We all live in the city of Brighton & Hove, on the south coast of England.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Instagr @kupalabrighton
Bluesky
YouTube