For the eighth time, the Estonian capital, Tallinn, will host the Ethnic Culture Days.
The event programme, highlighting the minority cultures of Estonia, is scheduled from 16 to 25 September. The event offers free concerts, film screenings, picnics, language and culture cafés and children’s events.
“Tallinn has always been a meeting place for different cultures,” Vadim Belobrovtsev, Tallinn’s deputy mayor, said in a statement. “Today, several dozens of different nationalities consider Tallinn their home. Cultural diversity is enriching, and it is noteworthy that almost 47 per cent of Tallinn’s population consists of people from different ethnic minorities.”
The Tallinn city government said the event will give people of all ages “the opportunity to experience the cultures around us through food, dance, language, music and art”. Events take place in various cultural centres, libraries and community gardens all over Tallinn and are mostly free of charge.
People can also take part in food workshops on different national cultures, for example learning to make Korean pancakes with vegetables, Ukrainian borscht and chicken Kiev.
Participants can also learn dances of different nationalities and enjoy concerts with world-class music. There will also be a series of thematic exhibitions and displays, and a large ethno-fair with a varied cultural programme.
The largest ethnic minorities in Tallinn are Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Finns, Jews and Tatars, but in recent years, thousands of people from the European Union states as well as countries across the world have settled in the Estonian capital.
