Baltic Visitor

[ 4 December, 2007 to 17 December, 2007. ] The name ‘Christmas Jazz’ (Joulujazz in Estonian) may well strike fear into your heart: surely not a festival of Christmas carols performed in a jazz style? Or some kind of Wizzard-meets-Miles-Davis fusion fest?

Thankfully not. Christmas Jazz is simply a jazz festival which takes place in the run-up to Christmas, and what’s more it has a […]

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[ 21 July, 2007; ] This weekend sees the most important event in the calendar for Estonian indie music fans – the annual Plink Plonk festival which began in 2005. The event is held in Tartu, helping it to stand out from the myriad festivals which take place in the capital over the summer months. It might not be the […]

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[ 5 July, 2007 to 8 July, 2007. ] Today sees the start of the biggest event in the Lithuanian cultural calendar – so big, in fact, that it only happens once every four years. The Lithuanian Song and Dance Celebration brings together thousands of performers, and has been officially recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of […]

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I hope that any of my readers living in (or visiting) the Baltics enjoyed last night, and want to wish them a happy Jāņi (Latvia), Jaanipäev (Estonia) or Joninės (Lithuania). If anyone managed to find one of those mythical flowering ferns, please let me know!
I came across a traditional Latvian Jāņi song yesterday in the […]

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[ 22 June, 2007; 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. ] The 22nd June sees an array of events in Riga’s Dome Square. The Green Market (Zāļu tirgus) runs from 9am-5pm, selling traditional Jāņi foods. You can also buy oak leaves and flowers for garlands, which can be threaded while you wait, if you want to go for the traditional Midsummer look. There are musical events […]

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With only a few days to go before Midsummer, there is an excellent article on the annual festivities on Latvians Online – one of the best English-language Latvian websites. The piece by writer and musician Amanda Jātniece describes the run-up to Jāņi (Midsummer) in a manner recalling the days before Christmas:
Jāņi is on the air […]

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[ 12 June, 2007 to 17 June, 2007. ] The coming week sees Latvia’s 13th International Early Music Festival, with concerts held in Riga and Rundale. It runs from 12th-17th June, with most events taking place in Riga – settings include the the courtyard of the Three Brothers (residential buildings dating from the 15th, 17th and 18th centuries) and the immaculately reconstructed House of […]

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[ 9 June, 2007; 8:30 am to 11:00 pm. ] It’s a bit short notice for foreign tourists, but the Baltic Times reports on the VW Beetles Summer with Cili-2007 festival which will take place tomorrow (9th June). Between 50 and 80 vehicles are expected to take part, with events ranging from the straightforward (a parade of vehicles and an orienteering competition) to the bizarre […]

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[ 23 June, 2007 to 24 June, 2007. ] The biggest festival in the Baltic calendar, midsummer is celebrated with a night of partying on 23rd June. It is a true pagan throwback, with the sun symbolically defeating the darkness, although it also has a more practical side as it marks the start of the summer harvest.

Midsummer goes by a different name in each […]

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[ 2 June, 2007 to 3 June, 2007. ] This annual event has been running at the Open-Air Ethnographic Museum in Riga since 1971, and this year will take place on 2nd and 3rd June. There is folk music and traditional dancing, but the festival is predominantly a chance to buy local handicrafts. The site itself is one of the tourist highlights of Riga […]

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