TALLINN - No amount of rain could ruin the elated spirits of the thousands of choir singers, folk dancers and spectators who gathered in Tallinn to celebrate the 24th Song Festival July 2 - 4.
Organizers estimated the overall number of performers and spectators to be as high as 100,000, though this number could have been significantly larger had it not been for the heavy rains that continued almost nonstop from June 30 to July 3.
The stormy weather, in fact, led to the cancelation of one dance performance scheduled for July 3. The Kadriorg Stadium, the folk dancing venue where the event was supposed to take place, was soaked in water.
It was the first time in the history of Estonia's national folk festival that a performance was canceled.
What's more, the festival's official grand parade, where some 33,000 people walk from the city center to the Song Festival Grounds, was also canceled.
Yet spirits were revived when festival participants quickly managed to gather a rather impressive crowd of some 7,000 people to march through the heavy rain, singing all the way.
The long-awaited 2.3-meter bronze statue of Gustav Ernesaks (1908-1993), the Estonian composer and conductor who became an icon of the song festival during Soviet rule, was uncovered on July 3 at the festival grounds.
The outgoing head of the European Commission Romano Prodi, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga and Finnish President Tarja Halonen attended the festival.
President Arnold Ruutel remarked that this year's festival was only the seventh held in independent Estonia.
"Life in the European cultural environment means an association of equal yet unique partners. We can be successful in that association only if we preserve the specificity of our culture and faith in ourselves in the era of globalization and mass culture," said Ruutel.
The tradition of the song festival, which was a powerful tool in the country's independence movement, originates in the second half of the 19th century during the period of national awakening when the local intellectual elite started to promote their national identity through culture.
Since its birth in 1869, the festival has been held - although with some irregularity - once every five years.
The festival received high-level international recognition last November when UNESCO approved the joint bid of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for listing the song and dance festival tradition on the UNESCO World Heritage register.
