The annual Ollesummer (Beer Summer) festival has been running in Tallinn since 1996, and has grown to the extent that it now fills up the entire Song Festival Grounds. This year the event – running from 4th-8th July – will include more than ten entertainment stages, along with beer tents and food stalls. The biggest musical performance will be a tribute to ABBA, performed by Estonian artists who have competed in Eurovision, but there are plenty of other concerts for those who are not fans of the Swedish pop band.
Saturday night may be particularly interesting for foreign tourists as there will be traditional folk singing at 7.30pm under the site’s main arch. Other attractions apparently include bungee jumping, go-go dancers an…erm…strip aerobics. The last of these may or may not be as dodgy as it sounds, but the event as a whole is family-friendly with plenty to keep children happy including a playground and a skate park. And for the adults, as the event’s name suggests, there will be opportunities to try a range of beers from around the world.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Michael // Jul 4, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Hi there, I just followed through from the wordpress UTW thread and saw this post. I was planning to take the wife to Tallinn a little while ago but the riots kinda put me off
This is a nice blog and will give me some ideas as I have 5 days in August and fancy somewhere in the Baltics! I just want to stay away from the stag parties 
2 John // Jul 4, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Hi Michael, thanks for visiting. As you can probably guess, I would recommend that you don’t let the riots put you off visiting the region!
Avoiding the stag parties isn’t so difficult really, as they tend to stick to certain bars and areas. If you’re mostly doing more ‘cultural’ stuff then your paths won’t cross too often, at least during the day. It is more tricky in the old towns of Riga and Tallinn at night, but you should still be able to find quieter bars and restaurants frequented by locals.
Going midweek would help, as most of the stags seem to arrive on the Friday evening flights. Of the three capitals, Vilnius is probably the least ‘afflicted’ by stag parties. One possibility for a five day trip to Lithuania would be to see Vilnius, the Curonian Spit (which is beautiful although full of tourists in August) and Siauliai (for the Hill of Crosses - again it will be busy, but it is well worth visiting). If you can squeeze in the castle at Trakai even better, but it might be a rush.
Please do browse around the site for tips, although there’s only a limited amount here so far. If you want to ask any specific questions, then feel free and I’ll do what I can to answer.
Leave a Comment