Ukraine: Six months after Ukraine's Orange Revolution, the people were out on the streets again this weekend, but their purpose on this occasion was not confrontation with riot police but celebration of the Eurovision.
Written off by much of the rest of Europe as kitsch, the cheesy song contest has provided the focus for an outpouring of emotion on the streets of Kiev.
But not everybody is happy. Revolutions have a habit of eating their children, and Ukraine is no different.
Pora, the youth group that spearheaded the December protests, has tried and failed to enter politics.
Ukraine's president Victor Yushchenko has cold-shouldered the movement, grudgingly giving it a single cabinet post, but telling Pora members that if they want more, they need to stand for election just like anybody else.
Pora - the name means It Is Time - is now trying to form a political party, but their membership is declining.
Most drifted away with the end of the street protests and, shorn of its pro-democracy zeal, the movement is struggling to define what it stands for.
For the Eurovision, Pora reopened the camp it had formed for the winter revolution. But the Kiev authorities, having just retarmacked the roads, ordered that the camp be set up on an island on the Dnipr River. The result was that barely a tenth of the 5,000 expected inhabitants showed up.
Many, even inside the movement, want Pora to stay out of politics and to place itself instead as a sleeping giant making sure future governments stick to the right path. "Some think we can be the guardians of democracy," said Nina Sorokopud, a Pora press officer. "If it were not for Pora then maybe the revolution would not have happened."
Meanwhile, tensions have sprouted in the new government, between Mr Yushchenko and his glamorous prime minister, Julia Timoshenko.
During the Orange Revolution they formed an inseparable double act, with Mr Yushchenko playing the role of sober father-figure and Ms Timoshenko providing the fire and passion.
Since then they have gone their own ways. Mr Yushchenko last week blamed his prime minister for a cut in fuel supplies.
Ms Timoshenko has caused anxiety among economists by splashing out on a generous programme of pensions and social payments that the government cannot afford. Her pensions plan has made her popular, as has her shrill campaign to root out corrupt tycoons who grew rich under the previous government.
Dozens of privatisations by the previous regime have been looked at again, starting with the sale of a giant steel works by former president Leonid Kuchma to his son-in-law.
"She is a pain in the neck for a lot of strong men in Ukraine," said Peter Burkovski of Kiev's School for Policy Analysis. "Her methods are not so legal. Sometimes she goes further."
Despite the squabbles, the Yushchenko-Timoshenko team remains popular, regularly scoring 60 per cent in opinion polls.
"The number one emotion you find on the streets is hope," said one western diplomat.
The handful of westerners living here are similarly confident, saying the end of the old regime has lessened corruption.
Mr Yushchenko recently chose Kiev's Irish Pub, O'Brien's, to hold his birthday party. "Everything has become a lot more transparent," said its Irish owner, Desmond Reid. "It's too early to say how successful they will be but they are heading in the right direction."
Rougher times lie ahead. The government has a huge task to introduce new laws and open the country for business, and it will soon run out of money if it keeps spending generously on pensions.
But for now, Ukrainians are basking in the warmth of the Eurovision glow.