Long Table Festival aims to prolong high tourist season in Palanga

PALANGA - With the tourist high season unstoppably winding down, Palanga, a resort town in Lithuania’s west, is ready to do whatever it takes to prolong the summer buzz and, sure, the money-spending spree in the resort’s abundant cafes, restaurants and hotels.
“Usually the high season does not extend beyond Sept. 1, but with an array of massive events planned for September, we are hoping to prolong [the high season] at least till the end of the month,” Sarunas Vaitkus, Palanga’s mayor, said to The Baltic Times.

With this endeavor in mind, Palanga Culture Center, a local municipality establishment in charge of cultural event planning and organizing in the resort, has launched, for the month, an ambitious event plan that is expected to bring more-than-usual zest and bustle to the resort town in the fall.

Bearing in mind that Palanga has been awarded the title of the capital of voluntary activity, a project carried out by Lithuania’s Youth Organizations Council, aimed to ginger up and nudge the local youth to search for ways in tackling local youth activity in problems, it seems that the September-enlivening-efforts may yet turn into an unprecedented success.
Undoubtedly, the coming Saturday, Sept. 17, marking the kick-off of the annual Long Table Festival, will bring into the resort hordes of folks, willing to carouse and revel at the hundreds of put-together tables, represented by Palanga’s numerous businesses, state institutions and others. The festival lures everyone not only with its lavish and nostril-tickling aromas wafting out from large pots, those boiling the Palanga-style fish soup, or grills roasting the Lithuanian-style veal chops, but also by plentiful cultural events, ranging from the appearance of local ethnographic groups and choirs, to cheerful traditional sport amusements.

Are you not up to the gluttony and the hustle-and-bustle? Would you rather stay away from the crowds and better saunter in cackle-free romance-spurring parts of the resort?
In this case, you may want to stroll over to certain stretches of Vytautas St., right in the middle of town, for quiet antique book page-flicking in the local flea market, art exhibitions in Palanga Art Gallery, or wander to Darius and Girenas St., four blocks from Basanavicius Promenade, for a hand-in-hand walk, led by the amicable sounds of jazz music.
If traditional Lithuanian sports amusements puzzle you, you may want to spar with other chess whizzes or ping-pong buffs in the sports section of the festival, or simply take a bike ride for a get-away.

The Long Table Festival has been a relatively new festival in Palanga; however, it is gaining fame while attracting larger crowds. “In 2008, with the summer high season inching to an end, members of the local Hotel and Restaurant Association scrambled about how to prolong the season, proving that Palanga can be very amusing even during a maple-leaf fall. Our thoughts were on the idea of an autumn festival; however, we could not come up with one marvelous idea. That was when it occurred that the centerpiece of the autumn festival could be a table. To be exact, hundreds or thousands of smaller tables, as all good things start off from a spot behind the table,” Gintaras Siciunas, president of Palanga’s Hotel and Restaurant Association remembered.

He admitted it had taken a record-short time to have the new festival organized. “It turned out to have been a huge success, attracting thousands of local residents and guests from all over. I believe the success lied upon the great idea - to have one huge table in the beginning of Basanavicius Promenade, a symbol of one big family, and numerous regular-size tables along the promenade. Local businesses and organizations, given the opportunity to represent what they have or do best, were eager to take it on, bringing in their make-shift tables and showing off their goods, achievements, or simply making out while frolicking,” Nerijus Stasiulis, head deputy of Palanga Culture Center and the chief conductor of the festival, said to The Baltic Times.

Over three years, the festival, in conjunction with International Tourism Day, commemorated on Sept. 27, has become a national festivity, officially recognized by the Lithuanian Tourism Department.
“No doubt, the Long Table Festival has been one of the most successful festivals ever organized in Palanga,” says Stasiulis. In addition, he remarks, the festival is probably the only festivity in town engulfing so many segments of the local community – local amber artists, restaurateurs, hoteliers and most other artisans, let alone local dwellers.

With the upcoming festival buzz getting louder, its leaders, however, do not dare yet to predict whether the record, at 500-meters of closely lined tables, will be surpassed this year. “We eye the ultimate record, lining the tables along the length of Basanavicius Promenade, 900 meters in total; however, it is very hard to tell whether we will break the record for one reason – the weather. With the Indian summer promising a sunny autumn weekend, it is likely to fall. However, one gloomy cloud over the head of a local businessman on Saturday can spook him, and put the record bid in jeopardy,” grins Stasiulis.
However, it is obvious now that one record has already been achieved: Vytautas Kusas, a local artist known for his extraordinairy art ambitions, has created for the 2011 Long Table Festival the tiniest ever set of mini-tables and chairs, measuring just several centimeters.

Make sure not to trample on them!
A series of the tiny items made by the artist includes a 9 millimeter-high, 8 millimeter-wide, 3 millimeter-thick and 56-page poetry book “Sense,” the smallest Lithuanian book, which has been included in the Lithuanian Guinness book.
Obviously, you will not miss the other table, a 368 centimeter-high giant’s table at the entrance to Basanavicius Promenade. It is the highest table ever built in Lithuania and also holds its inscription in the national Guinness book.

Sure, no festival can be imagined without amber in Palanga. Local amber artisans will exhibit their amber artworks, ranging from amber bracelets, necklaces, broaches and ear-rings to amber piece-studded canvases.
Be aware that amber jewelry has been a part of the Lithuanian cultural heritage and, probably, identity, and are believed to even have curing powers. In the festival you will be also able to participate in amber-jewelry making workshops.
“We are happy to have at the Long Table Festival more and more folks every year, and I hope that this upcoming weekend will be bustling with people from all over. On behalf of the organizers, I want to assure everyone that it is worth coming to Palanga,” Stasiulis maintained.