YOU may have thought New Year’s Eve had been and gone. Well, think again… Ukrainians follow the Eastern calendar – and for them, New Year falls on January 13.

Which is why The Crescent in York is staging a traditional Ukrainian ‘Malanka’, or New Year festival, on Saturday January 14.

The event will feature folk and roots music with a distinctly Ukrainian flavour - from a band called, appropriately enough, The Ukrainians.

The Leeds-based band have been playing a mix of Ukrainian folk and western rock for 30 years. They have recorded eight studio albums and performed more than 1,000 gigs.

But with the war in Ukraine still ongoing, this New Year’s concert will be a very special one, says the band’s Peter Solowka, whose father Iwan was originally from western Ukraine.

“He came to the UK in 1948 and helped to form a Ukrainian Club in Middleton, Manchester where I grew up,” Peter said.

The band, Peter says, plays a mix of Ukrainian and western music. “The lyrics are in Ukrainian, as is the melodic style, and the backing is western rock. Most of our material is self written, and we also cover traditional Ukrainian folk.”

Peter admits that when Russia invaded Ukraine he was deeply shocked – and felt angry and helpless. But somewhere deep inside he wasn’t really surprised. Ukrainians have learned from bitter experience what it is to be invaded by foreign powers, he said.

“This is our history. It seems inevitable that a thriving Ukrainian state couldn't be allowed to continue next to Russia, that the old pattern of past centuries would re-assert itself.”

He said his father once told him: ‘Peter - Ukraine is the most difficult place in the world to live. The land is fertile, everything grows, if you work hard you will want for nothing. But as soon as the country is built up, some foreign army comes, smashes everything up, takes away what they want. You have to start again from scratch’.

“I remember saying something like 'The world has changed dad - Europe doesn't do this sort of thing anymore’,” Peter said. “He just shrugged his shoulders.”

The concert will be a chance to raise money for refugees still inside Ukraine who have been displaced from their homes and are struggling with heat, food and water supplies.

“A bucket will be passed around, and we'll give half our merchandise income to charities. I think there will even be a Ukrainian cake charity sale,” Peter said.

Tickets are £14. “But we are running a scheme where refugees can get in for half price,” Peter said.

Rebecca Russell of York City of Sanctuary said: “More than 300 Ukrainians arrived in York in 2022. The gig gives the community here a chance to come together, and offering reduced rate tickets for refugees is a lovely gesture. It will be quite a party!”

The Ukrainians: 'Malanka', The Crescent, Saturday January 14, 7.30pm. Tickets £14 in advance (more on the door on the day) from thecrescentyork.com/events/