The 26th Estonian Song and 19th Dance Celebration drew the highest ever number of participants and audience from 4-6 July – over 153,000 people visited the performances.
Most tickets were sold for the second concert of the Song Celebration, this year called “The Time to Touch”, on Sunday – 67,322 tickets. 33,025 singers and 10,082 dancers took part of the festival; the joint choir for the grand finale consisted of just over 22,000 singers.
“I’m extremely happy to be born in Estonia, to be speaking Estonian language. I’m grateful to be able to give my little contribution to ‘laulupidu’, there is nothing better that that,” the artistic director of the festival, Hirvo Surva, said.
In addition, 1,240 foreign participants joined the event.
The next Youth Song and Dance Celebration takes place in 2017. In five years’ time – 2019 – the Song and Dance Celebration marks its 150th anniversary.
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Five video highlights of the 26th Song Celebration:
1. “Dawn” (1988) – Tõnis Mägi.
2. “The Touch” (2014) – Tõnu Kõrvits / Kristiina Ehin.
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3. “Beautiful Land” (2004) – Rein Rannap / Hando Runnel (opens in a new window).
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4. “It Flies Towards Beehive” – Peep Sarapik (1949-1994) / Juhan Liiv (1864-1913).
5. “Till Death” – Alo Mattiisen (1961-1996) / Lydia Koidula (1843–1886), Jüri Leesment. Arrangement for choir by René Eespere, orchestral arrangement Tõnis Kõrvits; selected joint choirs.
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Cover photo: the 26th Estonian Song Celebration taking place on the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds 4-6 July 2014/courtesy of Laulupidu.
