Other events in Baltic States

The 24th Latvian Song and 14th Dance Festival officially began on July 5 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.