Balaklava Blues

TD MAINSTAGE BANDSHELL
THURSDAY 10:00PM-11:00PM

LONDON BREWERIES STAGE
FRIDAY 8:30PM-9:30PM

Balaklava Blues is the brainchild of Mark and Marichka Marczyk, leaders of Canada’s mighty Lemon Bucket Orkestra and creators of the multi-award-winning guerrilla folk opera Counting Sheep. The power couple met and fell in love on the Ukrainian steppe during the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, and ever since they have dedicated their creative energy to telling stories of their home country to the world.

All of Mark and Marichka’s work reflects their first-hand experience of revolution and war – including spending time on the Ukrainian front – coupled with their passion for, and mastery of, traditional folklore and Ukrainian cultural identity. Mark puts it this way, “Balaklava Blues is a reclamation of the violence perpetrated on my home country. We want to redesign and remix physical and psychological oppression and question how and why it continues to inform who we are and what we can become.”

The Ukrainian Canadian hyper-folk-noir ensemble have just released the final instalment in their intense and emotional series of black and white music videos accompanying their sophomore album LET ME OUT (released in November 2022). The videos meander between live action (Serbian Canadian cinematographer Pedja Milosavljevic) and animated dream states (Ukrainian animator Dima Nechepurenko) as its protagonist is carried deeper and deeper into an endless winter of post-traumatic stress.