Baltic folklore festival comes to Vilnius

The 34th Annual International Folklore Festival will be held in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital from 23rd to 27th of May, presenting folk groups from across Europe and Asia. Concerts and performances in main city squares will feature outstanding soloists and superb ensembles. This Festival has an established overall pattern, but each festival has its own unique character.

Both visitors to Vilnius and Vilnius residents who come across Festival events are amazed – people are singing everywhere. Folk songs in Lithuania are very much part of a living tradition and for Lithuanians to sing together is seen by them as a manifestation of national unity.

Squares and courtyards of Vilnius Old City such as Cathedral square, Vilnius University’s, Alumnato courtyards and others become a home from home where relatives can gather during the course of the Festival. The boundary between performers and the audience scarcely exists here. The feeling of belonging to a family or a unique people is very important to those attending the Festival.

The Festival, which is called “Skamba skamba kankliai” in Lithuanian, has been taking place in Vilnius since 1973. Each spring, during the last week of May the Old City are filled with songs and dances of our ancestors. Folklore country singers, dancers and musicians from the different regions of Lithuania take part in the Festival. Guests from the Baltic States and other countries arrive to perform in Vilnius every year. The Festival is visited by about twenty thousand people every year.

The aim of the Festival is to foster traditional folklore in the city. Those taking part in the Festival give most their performances in Sereikiskes Park located in the centre of Vilnius, as well as in the picturesque yards and squares of the Old City. Several concerts are held in the city’s halls and churches, in a distinguished artistic and architecture environment.

It was during the Festival that some people first saw some of the traditional old Lithuanian instruments – daudytës, ragai, skuduèiai, lumzdeliai, kanklës and heard sutartinës (ancient rounds). After sutartinës and other traditional harmonic forms had vanished from people’s daily lives, they resurfaced in the repertoires of the city’s folklore groups.

“Skamba skamba kankliai” has consistently and faithfully preserved traditional culture in cities and thus became a way of expressing national identity for the participants of the festival.

For more about this festival visit: Etno.lt

For more about Vilnius, which will become the European Capital of Culture in 2009 visit: Vilnius-tourism.lt; Vilnius2009.lt

For more about Lithuania visit: Travel.lt