How OYU Fest Became a Portrait of Kazakhstan’s New Music Scene

OYU Fest returned to Almaty’s Pervomaysky Ponds for its fifth-anniversary edition, marking another step in its rise as one of Kazakhstan’s leading contemporary music festivals. Since its launch in 2022, OYU has grown from a local initiative into an important platform for Kazakhstan’s music scene, drawing a wider audience across Central Asia. Kazakhstan has welcomed more international performers in recent years, including Jennifer Lopez, the Backstreet Boys, and Enrique Iglesias. OYU has taken a different approach. It has remained a festival without foreign headliners, keeping contemporary Kazakh music at the center of its program. Instead of competing with large international shows, the festival connects local artists with audiences of different generations and reflects the range and confidence of Kazakhstan’s music scene today. The first OYU Fest took place in the summer of 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Although the festival has never made political statements, it emerged during a period of growing public interest in Kazakhstan’s cultural identity, national language, and domestic music scene. Artists who 15 to 20 years ago were often seen as niche or local performers now draw audiences of tens of thousands across Kazakhstan, including listeners outside ethnic Kazakh communities. OYU 2026 Brings Glastonbury Weather to Kazakhstan’s Coachella This year, OYU expanded to a two-day format for the first time and welcomed several thousand visitors. The lineup brought together emerging artists, Kazakh-language pop performers, indie musicians, rappers, R&B acts, K-pop groups, and long-established singers known to several generations in Kazakhstan. The range of performers showed how far Kazakhstan’s contemporary music scene has developed, from newcomers to established names. The festival opened with torrential rain, recalling OYU’s first edition. At that first festival, strong winds tore down tents. Performers sang on a soaked stage, and audiences danced through the downpour to songs by Zoloto and hits from Kairat Nurtas, one of Kazakhstan’s best-known pop stars. The weather became part of the festival’s identity. This year, forecasts predicted only light showers. Shortly before the festival began, however, Almaty was hit by what felt like a tropical downpour. Visitors arrived at the festival grounds completely soaked, although organizers distributed free rain ponchos at the entrance. People sheltered beneath temporary canopies and joked that OYU, once dubbed Kazakhstan’s Coachella, had unexpectedly become Kazakhstan’s Glastonbury, where rain and muddy ground are part of the experience. The mostly young audience was undeterred. By evening, the rain had eased, and by the time ARO, the fourth performer on the lineup, took the stage, it had stopped. The festival hosts jokingly called him a “rain whisperer,” noting that showers had ended just as he began performing more than once before. On the first day, audiences saw performances by On Alty, Almás, Zakryty Klub, Sadraddin, Kunzharyq, ALPHA, Yenlik, Berkut & Aisha, and others. The second day featured dosm., Ken Dala, abdr., Dequine, Ringo, Orynkhan Rakhimbekov, Roza Rymbaeva, and the independent music association Qazaq Indie. The lineup showed the range of Kazakhstan’s contemporary music scene. Festivalgoers heard Kazakh-language...