Sunday, July 13, 2008

Dziesmu Svētki

Although my fellowship was only for 10 months I decided to stay an extra month for the biggest event of the year, The Latvian Song and Dance Festival. I call it the Olympics of Latvian folk dancing and singing because it happens every five years and it brings the best Latvian singers and dancers from all over Latvia and the world to participate. Although there really isn't a first prize it is still amazing to see just how many participants there are. According to the Song Festival website over 35 000 participants gathered in Riga for the XXIV Song and XIV Dance Celebration in 2008. The tradition goes back for 135 years and in 2003 it was recorded in the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage.
I stood in line for more than four hours to get tickets to the closing concert for singing and dancing and it was worth every second. Also I was lucky enough to get my ticket situation fixed on my flight from Madrid so I made it just in time to see these concerts and the end of the week long festival. I went to the Closing Dance Concert on Friday night where over 13,000 dancers performed folk dances while forming ethnographic patterns. It was truly amazing and something that, as a retired Latvian folk dancer, was very cool to see. Then on Saturday night I went to the closing concert for the singing portion and final concert for the festival where there was both singing and dancing. There were over 12,000 singers, almost 1,000 dancers and even more people in the audience. After the encores and the end of the actual program the festival went into a sing along where people sang songs and danced until dawn! It was one of those moments in life that I will remember forever. Here are some of the pictures to show you just how huge it really was.

The market in one of the parks with the list of events.
Another market
The big wind orchestra pavilion in Dome Square
The Closing Dance Concert
The stadium seating where you could actually see the formations.


The closing ceremony for the entire song festival in Mežparks


Monika and I
Me and the stadium
The view from the top
Monika and I showing that songs are strength as the sign says.

1 comment:

Helena said...

you should come and see the song and dance festival in Estonia next year ;)
This is even a bigger event (around 30,000 singers plus dancers). Also, the dance festival takes place at a stadium where you can see the formations... noone really watches this on the same level where the dancers are... there is no point.