On December 6, the club KOR (Core) opened in Dnipro with the Core Launch Party. Kyiv vs Dnipro. The space’s name stands for ‘cultural hub of the movement’. Its genre focus is non-commercial electronic music of all kinds, and the team plans collaborations with clubs from other Ukrainian cities as well as performances by international artists.
At the request of DTF Magazine, KOR founder, promoter, and curator Ivan Zhovtonoh introduces the new space
The beginnings of KOR
It was a somewhat spontaneous idea. After returning to promoting, I organized parties at various clubs in Dnipro, and each time something felt off — the vibe wasn’t right, the quality was lacking, or the conditions were overly restrictive. The final straw came in June 2025, when, after playing a set at one of the local venues, I said that I would no longer play or organize parties anywhere else in the city except in my own club.
Why now? I think the answer is simple — the stars aligned. I had the opportunities and resources, I was offered a great location on favorable terms, and there were motivated people around me who also became part of this project.
After the closure of the Module club in Dnipro, a vacuum emerged in the city’s cultural life. Since the start of the full-scale war, Dnipro’s cultural scene has been sustained by projects such as DCCC (Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture), Spalakh, and Ardor, but this is not enough for a city of over one million people. Our venue aims to strengthen the scene and fill this gap in the city’s club life.
Переглянути цей допис в Instagram
About the name
We created a group chat where everyone shared their ideas for the name. The goal wasn’t just to come up with a club name, but to find something that would suggest deep immersion. One of us suggested ‘core’ in the sense of a nucleus. I played around with the word in my head for a bit, wrote it in Ukrainian, and that’s how KOR was born — a cultural hub of the movement.
A basement floor in the very center of the city has turned into the heart of Dnipro’s electronic culture — the core of its underground electronic scene.
In early September, when we still didn’t have a name, we launched an Instagram profile. The question was how to name it properly without misleading people. I wanted to use .dnipro, with the name placed before the dot, but the platform doesn’t allow usernames that start with a dot. So for several months we ran the account as dotdnipro, and naturally everyone assumed that the venue’s name was DOT.
About the space
It’s a basement space in the very center of Dnipro, on Korolevy Yelyzavety Street, just a two-minute walk from TSUM.
I was offered the location in the final days of summer, and by September 1 we had already started redesigning it to fit our vision. While we were dismantling the previous interior — a late-1990s restaurant-style renovation — a designer friend sketched out a few ideas based on my references, and everything started to come together and come alive.
The renovation lasted three months — we launched in December. I was helped, and continue to be helped, by my crew, people I’ve been working with for years who are definitely not newcomers to the club scene.
Переглянути цей допис в Instagram
About the sound
Sound is our crown jewel. It’s a new custom sound system by Rohozhyn Audio. I’ll quote Oleksandr’s post:
‘Everything is exactly as it should be. This is no longer a miracle — it’s probably that very magic. Or maybe it’s just that everything happened the way it was meant to. A bit about the system: subwoofers — 4 × ROHOZHYN/PI LSX21; tops and monitors — 6 × ROHOZHYN/PI CUBE14; the monitor system is fully identical to the tops in the main room. Amplification rack: 7 × Park Audio GS7, 2 × DF2008d.
The system’s dynamic headroom makes it easy and safe to play even the most complex, bass-heavy music. The total nominal power of the speaker system is 23 kW. The total peak electrical power of the amplification is 39 kW. It incorporates all of my latest tuning and system integration technologies’.
I had the chance to choose any sound system — Funktion-One or Void — but I know how Ukrainian-made ROHOZHYN sounds in Kyiv clubs, so I didn’t hesitate for long.
When asked, ‘Why go to such lengths?’, my answer is simple. When I was a child, my father often told me: ‘Son, if you’re going to do something, do it right. Otherwise, don’t do it at all’. I apply this principle to everything I do today. That’s why my club will either be done right — with one of the best sound systems — or it won’t exist at all.
View this post on Instagram
About international artists
Out of ten inquiries, we receive nine rejections. There are international artists who are genuinely interested in coming here to see how the city lives and unwinds during the war. However, most are not ready to take the risk.
Let me share a telling case. In 2025, I booked a well-known artist, and a week before the show his agent messaged me saying, ‘We need to have a call — there are some important questions’. During the conversation, the artist asked what I would do if he were to lose a leg, since his medical insurance would no longer be valid once he crossed the Ukrainian border.
Honestly, that question left me stunned for a moment. But I promised I would cover it at my own expense, and the artist came.
About the audience
These are people who don’t come just for a party. Music, sound, and atmosphere matter to them. They understand where they’re going and why.
Among our visitors are soldiers on leave, volunteers, IT specialists, entrepreneurs, and students. Very different people, but united by the same inner demand for high-quality parties. A core community is already forming at KOR — people who keep coming back, who respect the space, the music, and each other. For many, it’s not just a club, but a place of support, where, amid the reality of war, you can stay alive, grounded, and engaged.
First results
This project is far more complex than I imagined. I’m dealing with much more day-to-day routine than creativity, but I enjoy it — I love a challenge.
For now, everything is going according to plan: a core group of promoters and regulars is forming at the club, and each new weekend brings fresh inspiration.
