Cinema in a century-old manor, contemporary art inside a modernist landmark and music beside the lake: the second Kikumu festival turned Jäneda into a four-day cultural playground.
For four days in July, the paths around Jäneda led in several directions at once: towards a concert in the park, a film inside the manor house, an exhibition hidden in the corridors of a former agricultural school, or a DJ set beside the lake.
Held from 9–12 July, the second edition of Kikumu brought cinema, contemporary art and music together in the wooded landscape of northern Estonia. Its name comes from the Estonian words kino, kunst and muusika – but the festival’s ambitions extended beyond simply placing three art forms on the same programme.
At its centre stood the Jäneda Training Centre, designed by the renowned landscape architect Valve Pormeister and completed in 1975. The Soviet-era modernist building, regarded as one of Estonia’s most significant architectural works of the period, became an unusually atmospheric network of stages, galleries, clubs and gathering places.
Beside it, the 1915 Jäneda manor house joined the festival for the first time. Its rooms hosted a cinema programme curated by Tallinn’s Kino Sõprus, with African films, Estonian cult cinema, children’s screenings, experimental classics and a science-fiction strand inspired by HG Wells, who once spent time at Jäneda.
The musical programme ranged freely across generations and genres. Estonian performers including Vaiko Eplik and Eliit, Tõnis Mägi, Holy Motors, Night Tapes, Meisterjaan, Gram-Of-Fun, Zebra Island and Daniel Levi appeared alongside international names such as Nubiyan Twist, BCUC, Jazzanova with Wayne Snow, Booka Shade, Peter Bjorn and John, Maria Somerville, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom.
British DJ and broadcaster Gilles Peterson brought the festival to its conclusion, returning to the role he had played at Kikumu’s inaugural edition. Festival founder Indrek Kasela has described Peterson as one of the principal inspirations behind Kikumu: an artist and curator whose work moves easily between jazz, soul, electronic music and sounds from around the world.
There were no conventional headliners, VIP enclosures or corporate lounges. Kikumu’s premise was that every artist – and every member of the audience – should be treated as equally important. A celebrated international performer might occupy the same cultural terrain as an emerging Estonian act, a lakeside DJ or an experimental artist working in one of the training centre’s more elusive rooms.
Contemporary art was not relegated to a decorative corner of the festival. Seven galleries – Artrovert, Art&Tonic, FOKU, Kogo, Temnikova & Kasela, Tütar and Vaal – took over the building’s labyrinthine interiors.
Their exhibitions brought together work by artists including Marta Vaarik, Marleen Suvi, Kadri Toom, Robin Nõgisto, Johanna Adojaan, Kristi Kongi, Eike Eplik, Flo Kasearu, Jaanus Samma, Kärt Hammer, Angela Maasalu, Ingmar Järve and Loora Kaubi. Moving through the building, visitors could pass almost without warning from a concert to an exhibition, and from there into a cinema or improvised nightclub.
Beyond the stages and galleries, Kikumu spilled into the surrounding landscape. Festivalgoers could swim or kayak in Lake Kalijärv, join a sauna, follow guided walks through Jäneda’s forests, tour the manor’s improbable history or take part in a five-kilometre run ending beside the water.
Kasela has called Kikumu a “big salon of ideas in the wilderness”: a deliberately intimate festival where culture is intended to provide more than diversion. Its purpose, he says, is to send people home inspired and energised – even after a night spent dancing or talking to a newly found friend.
For one long July weekend, Jäneda offered just that: a place where a film might lead to a painting, a concert, a swim or a conversation carried on beneath the trees after the stages had fallen silent.
