Event Guide

ESTONIA

August 02-04, Tartu Food and Wine Festival, various venues in Tartu

Tartu Food and Wine Festival offers genuine Estonian taste experiences courtesy of small producers from South Estonia and pop-up restaurants as well as a rich selection of wines. Everyone can participate in the open tasting events and get advice from the best Estonian sommeliers. Your enjoyment of good food and wine will be complemented by a family-friendly entertainment programme, a unique gourmet dinner, home cafes at various city districts and many other tasty and exciting events. The official information on the event is available at www.maitsevtartu.ee 

August 09-11, Music Festival Viru Folk, Käsmu

This year, the Viru Folk family festival will introduce Irish culture. Irish music is well-known and appreciated around the world, as a lot of Irish people have migrated from the island to the wider world and spread their culture everywhere. Irish pubs can be found in many countries and often, live music can be enjoyed there. People around the world know songs such as Molly Malone, Drunken Sailor, The Wild Rover (No Nay Never), Whiskey in the Jar, and many more. In Ireland, these songs are played every day, as the Irish are big lovers of music. This time, the organisers of Viru Folk will try to create the Irish atmosphere in Käsmu as well, where, during the three-day festival, guests can enjoy a great deal of Irish traditional music, admire the famous Irish stepdance, and try the world-known Irish coffee, beer and whiskey. For more information please email [email protected] or call (+372) 505 6240.

August 10-11, Summer Night’s International Ballet Gala 2019, Estonian National Opera, Tallinn

Summer Night’s International Ballet Gala brings dancers from around the world (New Zealand, USA, Europe, Russia, etc.) to the stage of Estonian National Opera for two times only: August 10th and 11th. To purchase tickets please visit www.piletilevi.ee 

August 12-17, Tartu Love Film Fesival ‘tARTuFF’, Town Hall Square and Athena Center, Tartu

tARTuFF is a unique outdoor film festival taking place in the second biggest city in Estonia – Tartu. Located in the heart of the Old Town, the festival screens a diverse selection of genre and documentary films, focusing on the many facets of love. All films are screened free of charge. The screenings are accompanied by daily lectures and family friendly special events. With its cozy midsummer atmosphere and the biggest open-air cinema in the Baltics, tARTuFF has grown to be one of the most beloved summer festivals in Estonia. More information on the festival can be found at www.tartuff.ee

August 21-31, 15th Tallinn Chamber Music Festival, various venues in Tallinn

The Tallinn Chamber Music Festival is a major classical music event in Estonia and has become a highly valued tradition. It was created to enrich and add some classical spice to the busy cultural life in Tallinn, giving audiences the chance to enjoy and take pride in the country’s most outstanding musicians alongside many well-known guests. In 2016 the festival was organized in collaboration with the Tallinn Old Town Days. The founder and artistic director of the festival is the Estonian opera singer Pille Lill. For additional information please go to www.plmf.ee 

August 28-29, IV Narva Opera Festival Contemp-Art, various venues in Narva

In 2019, the Narva Opera Days will be held for the fourth time. The festival introduces contemporary classical music, has world premieres, and includes pieces by young artists (musicians, artists, directors, etc.), who, with professionals in their field, will perform well-known classics. The events of the Narva Opera Days will be carried out in the historic Narva Castle, the Kreenholm settlement, and the freshly opened Free Stage, where you can experience more chamber-like performances. The program of Narva Opera Days includes world premieres of major works, family performances, a dance theatre, and a theatre created by combining different art forms. For festival program and more please go to www.narvaopera.ee 

 

LATVIA

August 02-04, Music and Art Festival Laba Daba, Recreational Complex Ratnieki, Ligatne County

Laba Daba continues to be Latvia's most atmospheric and family friendly festival. Various styles of music will be performed during the festival: reggae, ethno-folk, rock, electronica, punk, ska and other music performed both by local musicians and musicians from abroad. In addition to the musical program, the festival will have a special cinema tent, sporting tournaments will be organized, as well as various theatrical and artistic performances. There will also be various creative and educational workshops. This year will already be the 11th edition of the festival. Additional information regarding the musical line-up, creative activities, sporting events, theater performances, cinema screenings and other activities will be available at the end of June on the festival’s home page www.labadaba.lv as well as on social networks.

August 03-04, Contemporary Crafts Festival, Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum, Riga

The August festival invites masters of Latvian arts and crafts who apply a variety of methods and materials. Involved in their production of goods are not only crafts skills, but also elements of technology development and modern design. The crafts combine the beautiful with the useful: artistic individuality, crafts skills and mercantile wisdom. The products represented at the festival have to reflect the demand of modern society for unique products and at the same time to show alternatives to uniform mass products. Guests from the Baltic Sea region will participate in the festival. Food products and catering services of the festival include modern and creative variations of the traditional Latvian cuisine and cuisine of other nations living in Latvia. Also, for the 5th year in a row the Open-Air Museum will gather amateur theatre groups coming from small towns and parishes of all regions of Latvia. Performances will be shown both indoors and outdoors, on fields and in other places. Learn more at www.brivdabasmuzejs.lv 

August 04, Classic & Jazz Music Concert by Hibla Gerzmava and the Yakov Okun Jazz Trio, Dzintari Concert Hall, Jurmala

The famous opera singer Hibla Gerzmava, in tandem with the Yakov Okun Jazz Trio, will offer the audience a musical program featuring examples of European academic traditions performed in the style of jazz. This will be an opportunity for the listener to decipher how close these seemingly different styles truly are – the old, academic and light European style, and the new American style. The Latvian group Da Gamba will also perform during the concert as a special guest. To buy tickets online please go to www.bilesuparadize.lv

August 05-11, International Music Festival Summertime – Inese Galante & Friends, Dzintari Concert Hall, Jurmala

One of the most famous international music festivals in Latvia “Summertime – Inese Galante & Friends”, will mark its 15thanniversary this summer, from 5 to 11 August. It will bring the brightest latino, jazz, rock-n-roll, funk, Balkan and classical music stars to Dzintari Concert Hall. Traditionally, the legendary festival, inspired by the world-famous opera diva Inese Galante, has become the culmination of the summer concert season in Jurmala. To learn more please visit www.festivalsummertime.com and to buy tickets online please go to www.bilesuparadize.lv

August 17, Riga Festival Restaurant, Spikeri Creative Quarter & Pro-menade, Riga

An elegant, white tablecloth and open-air restaurant, which for the sixth year in a row will bring together 15 of Riga’s top chefs – one of the most popular events of the Riga City Festival. This is where Riga’s top chefs acquaint city residents and guests with seasonal food prepared using local products and ingredients. Observing this year’s festival theme – legends, the chefs will create legendary dishes from legendary events and times. The design of the Riga Festival Restaurant will also be “legendary”. Live music will also be performed all throughout the day. The entrance is free.

Open till September 01, Riga Jurmala Music Festival, Latvian National Opera and Ballet, Great Guild, Dzintari Concert Hall, Riga and Jurmala

In summer 2019, a new world-class symphonic orchestra festival – Riga Jurmala Music Festival – will take place in Latvia, during which world-famous orchestras and conductors will perform in in the cities of Riga and Jurmala. The RJMF will take place over four weekends at the Latvian National Opera, the Great Guild, and the Great and Small Halls of the Dzintari Concert Hall. At the centre of each weekend will be two symphony orchestra concerts, solo concerts and morning concerts featuring rising musical stars. To learn more please visit www.riga-jurmala.com and to buy tickets online please go to www.bilesuparadize.lv

 

LITHUANIA 

August 08, Concert by Jazzu, Trakai Island Castle, Trakai

Everyone is invited to celebrate summer, love, and life at a cozy concert that will feature well-known songs by Justė Arlauskaitė-Jazzu, which she has written over 17 years with various performers and during different projects. To purchase tickets online please go to www.kakava.lt 

August 10, Concert by Ten Walls and Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Trakai Island Castle, Trakai

The most popular works of Ten Walls arranged especially for the orchestra will be played at the concert in Trakai Castle. The fans will hear “Gotham”, “Requiem”, the world hit “Walking with Elephants” and many other works. The orchestra of 70 musicians will play the works of “Ten Walls” in a new way together with Marijus Adomaitis. Tickets can be purchased online at www.bilietai.lt 

Open till August 18, Solo Exhibition by Mindaugas Navakas, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius

Mindaugas Navakas is an artist whose monumental work and social position have been hugely influential on the contemporary imagination for public urban space in Lithuania. The impact of his work and ideas has been instrumental to the formation of artists over the past decades. In recent years Navakas withdrew from his long-term teaching position at Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, dedicating the majority of his time to his own artistic practice. Objectivities is a compact thematic project which presents different trajectories in Navakas’ work developed over the last few years. In this exhibition he combines his monumental stone elements with smaller scale works, where he explores and deconstructs cultural references from the materials and objects of mass production that he has commonly used – imported granite from remote countries, cheap wallpaper, ornamented rubber surfaces, mattresses, and kitchen utensils. In this exhibition the artist’s enduring interests remain present but he employs new (stone processing) technologies, unusual ways of their use, while referring to the urgent social and economic contexts of their origin and application. The CAC exhibition unfolds his precise and conceptual quest into the fundamental qualities characteristic of minimal – and also classical sculpture – with an emphasis on the material, the volume, the proportion, and the context. The sculptural aspects of his practice are presented by Mindaugas Navakas in a somewhat cozy interior situation, inviting the viewer into a total installation created especially for the South Hall of the CAC. To find out more please visit www.cac.lt 

Open till August 25, Music Festival ‘The Nights of Užutrakis’, Užutrakis Palace, Trakai

Music Festival The Nights of Užutrakis is one of the most significant cultural events that best represent Trakai and Lithuania. With its start in 2005, it has been featuring prominent Lithuanian performers and world’s leading musicians. The Nights of Užutrakis has been gaining vast popularity among the music fans. The concerts that take place in Užutrakis Mansion House, situated in the background of Trakai Castle and surrounded by the Lake Galvė, capture the audience’s attention with its unique concept, as the music lovers are given a wonderful opportunity to enjoy beautiful music while admiring the majestic scenery of the park developed by a famous French landscape architect Edouard Francois Andre, as well as sailing boats and yachts in the Lake Galvė. The festival is particularly beneficial in adding vitality to one of the most important objects of the Lithuanian heritage by revealing its beauty through the magic of music. Tickets can be purchased online at www.bilietai.lt

August 26 – September 01, Accordion Music Week 2019, various venues in Vilnius

For one week only, outstanding artists from around the world come together to create and perform groundbreaking contemporary and classical music, cutting through barriers with pioneering performances – often in the most unexpected venues – across the beautiful city of Vilnius. Accordion Music Week invites you to think differently – not just about the accordion, but about the way you enjoy music. Challenge your perceptions with dynamic new works from contemporary composers. Discover new ideas and new musical directions. Experience the accordion as you’ve never heard it before. For more information please visit www.akordeonosavaite.lt

Open till August 28, Christopher Summer Festival 2019, various venues in Vilnius

Everyone’s welcome to the 25th Christopher Summer Festival. The name of the festival comes from Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers and Vilnius. So the essence of the Christopher Summer Festival is already encrypted in its title – a broad musical panorama, and a sense of belonging to Vilnius. These two factors have determined the musical spectrum, and the desire to show-off the capital's beauty by organizing concerts in courtyards, churches, on the river and in the sky, from the very first years since its inception. This summer, performances will take place on firm ground, but there will be plenty of novelties: from the chance to be a concert art director to musical breakfasts, from making an acquaintance with Stanisław Moniuszko to the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. But there’s also the new faces, unexpected combos and well-established traditions. Festival’s detailed program and more can be found at www.kristupofestivalis.lt and tickets can be purchased online at www.tiketa.lt

30 August – 01 September, Vilnius Capital Days Festival, various venues in Vilnius

Celebrate together with Vilnius at the biggest festival filled with music, good food, culture and a great atmosphere. Greet the autumn season with live concerts, exceptional shows, and a fair in the heart of the city, on Gediminas Avenue. Get ready for some action, adventures, and creative ideas. To find out more please go to www.vilniusfestivals.lt