Latvian Nationwide Song and Dance Celebration in Riga, July

Note: It was too HOT to film the 2010 parade so we give you 2008 video


Opening Day Parade - Wow what a parade !

In 2008, three Baltic countries -- Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia -- will celebrate 90 years since their independence. Year 2008 will also be significant for Latvia as around 35 000 participants will gather in our capital Riga for the XXIV Song and XIV Dance Celebration. It is not just a festival -- the tradition goes back for 135 years and in 2003 together with Lithuanian and Estonian Song and Dance tradition it was recorded in the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage. The celebration is due to take place from the 5th through the 12th of July 2008, in Mezaparks and Daugava Stadium in Riga. Attendees are certain to experience Latvia as the Land That Sings. Every spring all Latvian dance groups and choirs take part in displays involving more than 15 000 dancers and around 13 000 singers, demonstrating to the jury from the compulsory repertoire as well as freely chosen ones. In spring, 2008 dance displays will take place so that the jury can determine which dance groups and choirs are suitably prepared for the Song and Dance Celebration. The cream of the crop will be invited to participate in a final round on May 24! They have been preparing for 5 years to be named the best and win the participation at the celebration in July. The atmosphere will be similar to that of the 100 metre sprint at the Olympic Games!

News - National Song and Dance Festival begins today - 5 July 2008

-- click for -- Video of opening day parade

Reference material Source - LETA - www.leta.lv

RIGA, July 5 (LETA) - The 24th Latvian Song and 14th Dance Festival officially begins today (5 July) and will continue until July 12, as the festival's press secretary Aiva Rozenberga told LETA.

The first Song Festival was held in Riga in 1873, June 26 to June 29. As Olgerts Gravitis writes in the "Dziesmu svetku brinums" (The Marvel of the Song Festival), the first Song Festival was organized by the Riga Latvian Society, the festival's commission was presided over by the society's deputy chairman, Rihards Tomsons. 45 choirs with 1,003 singers participated in the first Song Festival. Janis Betins and Indrikis Zile were the chief conductors.

Along with works by foreign composers, the very first Latvian choral songs and arrangements of folk songs were performed at the festival. In opening the first Song Festival in the Riga Latvian Society House, Karlis Baumanis' "Dievs, sveti Latviju!" (God Bless Latvia) was performed for the first time, becoming Latvia's national anthem in 1920.

The Song Festival's origins can be traced back to the first half of the 1800s in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. At that time, music in Latvia was dominated by German culture, because the national revival had not yet begun and the Latvians did not have professional musicians or conductors.The first union of German men's choirs in Riga, "Die Rigaer Liedertafel", was founded in 1833 by conductor Heinrich Dorn.

Already in 1836, German men's choirs from Riga, Liepaja, Valmiera, Jelgava as well as Parnu, Tartu and Revel participated in a song festival in Vermanes Park, which had just been opened. The first pan-Baltic festival of German choirs was held in Riga in 1861, June 29 to July 4. 21 choirs with over 600 singers participated in the festival, including Latvian Rihards Tomsons, who was the initiator of the first Latvian Song Festival in 1873.

The scenario of the Song Festival in 1873 was similar to that of the German Song Festival in 1861: a procession of participants, a sacred concert in Riga Dome Church, contemporary music performances in Kaiser Park (now Viesturdarzs Park), a "War of Songs", a large-scale farewell feast and a ball in the Riga Latvian Society House. There were striking differences, however. For the first time in the German Riga, hundreds of Latvians, dressed in magnificent national costumes, streamed to Riga from all over Latvia, proving that they were not just "people with plows" but a nation with an ancient culture, rich folklore, sonorous voices, innate musicality and self-confidence.

At the festival's concerts, not only arrangements of folk songs were performed but also carols and sacred music by foreign composers

. The Song Festival is an indissoluble part of Latvian history, it had an enormous impact on the so-called reawakening of the nation and boosting the nation's self-confidence, that was building up rapidly.

Participating in the 24th Latvian Song and 14th Dance Festival will be 38,233 people, including 18,464 choir singers and 13,317 dancers, Rozenberga told LETA. The concerts, exhibitions and other events of the Song and Dance Festival will take place at Mezaparks Grand Stage, Daugava Stadium, Riga Latvian Society House, Dome Church, Dome Square, St. John's Church, Song Festival Park, Vermane Park, Latvian Ethnographic Open-air Museum, Small Guild, Grand Guild, Arena Riga, University of Latvia, International Exhibition Center in Kipsala, Latvian National Opera, concert hall "Ave Sol", Riga Congress Center, and others.

Emīlija Kozule LETA
Copyright © LETA

Tickets - or lack there of for Song Festival Celebration

Posted by Latvian News Agency, 7 June -- http://www.leta.lv/

Internet site jammed with those wanting tickets to Song Festival

RIGA, June 7 (LETA) - LETA observed this afternoon that it is not possible to buy tickets to the XXIV Latvian Song and Dance Festival via Internet.

The "http://www.bilesuparadize.lv/" home page has an announcement that the "maximum number of users has been exceeded."

As reported earlier, at several box offices in Riga, long lines are the reality as the second batch of Song and Dance Festival tickets went on sale.

At Daile Theater on Brivibas Street, about 100 persons were already lined up shortly before 11 am.

Many said that they failed to purchase tickets the first time around. Several - including foreigners - had even camped out at the theater overnight.

About 100 were also lined up at the box office at the "Sky" Supermarket on Krasta Street, and the first to arrive were there at already 5 am.

About 50 people are in line in the "Origo" Mall's ticket outlet.

Tickets for the festival went on sale at 11 am, and via Internet at 12 noon. There will be no telephone reservations.

The limit - no more than four tickets per person for one event.

On sale this time around - a total of 21,918 tickets.

more information

Latvia Song & Dance Festival Celebration

Around 35 000 participants will gather in Riga for the XXIV Song and XIV Dance Celebration.

It is not just a festival – the tradition goes back for 135 years and in 2003 together with Lithuanian and Estonian Song and Dance tradition it was recorded in the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The celebration is due to take place from the 5th through the 12th of July 2008, in Mezaparks and Daugava Stadium in Riga.

Attendees are certain to experience Latvia as the Land That Sings. Every spring all Latvian dance groups and choirs take part in displays involving more than 15 000 dancers and around 13 000 singers, demonstrating to the jury from the compulsory repertoire as well as freely chosen ones.

for more information