Ten years ago Dima Snegirev never could have imagined a logical series of events that would have taken him from his small village in southern Russia to one day playing at Glastonbury.

As a queer teenager in a deeply homophobic country, Dima left home at the age of 17 for the more liberal Moscow where he hoped to live his life freely. That dream came under pressure due to a series of laws casting any discussion of homosexuality as a crime, and then finally to a halt with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“I needed to get somewhere safe fast,” says Dima, “Life got really complicated and dangerous and I didn’t have any option to stay.”

Three years later, Dima is now resettled in the UK and one of six musicians that plays for Our HeartBeats, an organisation of collective DJs led by music producer Kensaye Russell. What sets Our HeartBeats apart is not only the power of the tunes, but also that every DJ is a young person seeking sanctuary in the UK with a unique story to tell about their journey to safety. Over the past two years the collective has grown from a small, one-off project in Hackney to a powerhouse playing music festivals across the country.

“Playing Glastonbury is something that as a boy from a small village in Russia I would never have imagined. I was watching the festival in Russia on YouTube, and that now feels like it was from a different world. Playing there was an epic experience that can never be compared to anything else.”

Our HeartBeats began as a collaborative project with Counterpoint Arts as a music event for Refugee Week in London. When Kensaye was first approached for the gig, he thought rather than simply finding a DJ for an evening of electronic music, why not train refugees as DJs and then have them play a set.

The Roundhouse, a gig venue in north London, was the perfect venue to host four crash course workshops in DJ’ing before the event to cap off Refugee Week in Dalston.  The show went off without a hitch, and from there became a starting point to grow something much bigger with Counterpoint Arts as a founding partner.

“The reception from the event was so positive, and Counterpoint Arts helped us find more funding to carry on from there,” says Kensaye. In September Our HeartBeats became a community interest company (CIC) that exclusively pays and trains young asylum seekers who have obtained legal refugee status.

Dima at Glastonbury, 2025

For the refugees, DJ’ing has become more than just a career opportunity. It is also a way to communicate a story about who they are and to find a new voice through music. According to Our HeartBeat’s Insta account, the organisation offers participants the “skills space and platform to share their stories, celebrate their cultures, and express themselves freely.”

Free expression through music is something Dima was not allowed in his home country. Although he always wanted to pursue a career in music production, it wasn’t until he came to Our HeartBeats that he had the resources to turn his passion into a reality.

“Playing music is almost like a healing experience, and it is a safe way for me to heal. I didn’t really like asking for help, but when I learned about Our HeartBeats, I knew I needed to trust and that was the best decision of my life.”

Without secured funding currently in place, Our HeartBeats is focused on finding the support needed to continue its work and develop a new programme. The aim is to create space, training and paid opportunities for a new cohort of refugees and people seeking asylum, while continuing to support those already involved.

Finding funding opportunities has not been straightforward. Swiftly changing attitudes towards migration have created a competitive funding landscape for organisations and charities working with asylum seekers.

Kensaye says that although it has been challenging, he is going into 2026 with more motivation to expand: “I don’t know many people who are doing what we’re doing. We are targeting not just migrants, but also youth and working expansively in the arts.”

A documentary from Oxfam about the organisation is currently in production. It will highlight not only the music played, but also the long journeys the DJs took from their home countries to the UK. Dima says that allowing a film crew into his apartment, after years of looking for a safe place to call home, was an exercise in vulnerability. Reading the news and scrolling through social media takes a different form when many of the headlines describe your existence in the country in terms varying from nuisance to illegal.

“With the way asylum seekers and refugees are often talked about and portrayed today, in the media and through new laws and reforms, it sometimes feels like moving from one prison to another – even if the second place is much safer,” says Dima.

“There are so many urgent global issues we should be focusing on: climate change, inequality, and war, rather than blaming refugees for problems they didn’t create. I think we need to listen to each other more, and music is one way I try to open that conversation”

Humanizing his experience through music is one of the best ways to get people to listen.