Estonian Song Festival

Estonian Song Festival Üldlaulupidu
XXVII Estonian Song Festival (7 July 2019)
Genre	Choral festival
Date(s)	July
Frequency	Five-year
Venue	Tallinn Song Festival Grounds
Location(s)	Tallinn, Estonia
Inaugurated	1869

The Estonian Song Festival (in Estonian: üldlaulupidu), first held in 1869, is now one of the largest choral events in the world, and a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.^[1]

The festival is held once every four to six years in July on the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds simultaneously with the Estonian Dance Festival.^[2] The joint choir has comprised more than 30,000 singers performing to an audience of 80,000.^[2][3]

History

The tradition of the song festival was born along with the Estonian national awakening in the mid-19th century. The first national song festival was held in Tartu in the summer of 1869.^[2] One of the organisers of the first song festival was journalist and poet Johann Voldemar Jannsen. Jannsen’s daughter, Lydia Koidula, whose sobriquet means "Lydia of the Dawn", was the author of lyrics for two Estonian songs, Sind surmani ("Thee until death") and Mu isamaa on minu arm ("My fatherland is my love"), both of which are still in the festival repertoire today.

Alongside with the Estonian books and newspapers, the choirs and song celebrations were at the core of the national awakening of the Estonian rural population who discovered the value of their own language and cultural heritage through singing. The awakening and establishment of the Estonian national identity would lead to the country's independence in 1918.

In the first three festivals only men's choirs and brass orchestras participated. 822 singers and 56 brass players participated in the first festival. Starting with the fourth festival, mixed choirs were also participating. Starting with the sixth festival in 1896, the tradition moved to Tallinn.

Over time, mixed, children's, women's, and boys' choirs, hobby symphonies, and toddler choirs were added. The first Estonian national dance festival took place in the capital city Tallinn in 1934. Since 1947, the song and the dance festivals have mostly been held at the same time (at different venues) in Tallinn.

Because of the inclusion of children's and boys' choirs the total number of participants rose to 25,000 – 30,000 people. The Dance and Gymnastic Festival of the First Estonian Games started in 1934 became predecessors of later National Dance Festivals accompanying the song festival.^[4]

In 2019, the number of visitors to the song festival reached its maximum. Almost 60,000 tickets were sold in advance for the XXVII song festival Minu arm ("My love") concert, and together with the 35,000 singers and musicians participating, the expected attendee numbers reached full capacity and the organizers had to stop any additional ticket sales for safety and security reasons.

The next Estonian Song Festival will be held in July 2025.

List of Song Festivals

See also

Singing Revolution

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Estonian Song Celebration.