LITHUANIA’S CENTENARY SONG CELEBRATION “IN THE NAME OF…”
If you haven’t visited Lithuania in the middle of summer when the great Lithuanian Art Olympics takes place here, it will probably be difficult for you to imagine what a choir of 20 000 sounds like or what the ornaments traced by 9 000 dancers in a single stadium look like. Is it possible to fit the whole country with its variety of villages, towns, dialects, olds songs, dances, arts, foods and other traditions inside the territory of a city park? All that and more you can see in the Song Celebration. The fundamental parts that form its programme are: Folklore Day, devoted to the traditional culture; Ensembles’ Evening, consisting of colourful, theatrical, stylized performances of folklore ensembles, combining music, song and dance; Dance Day, an interpretation of Lithuanian customs, traditions, and symbols through professionally created dance choreography. The festival’s programme is complimented by the Folk Art Exhibition; the afternoon of Kanklės (traditional Lithuanian string instrument) music; performances by wind orchestras and amateur theatre groups; professional art exhibitions as well as the colourful and emotional parade of all festival participants.
In the big stadium, the team of VDU folk dances “Žilvitis” joined the nine thousand dancers and a mixed choir of Vytautas Magnus University “Vivere Cantus”, joined the choir’s twenty thousand participants.
