On Monday, June 21, Riga City Council Chairman Mārtiņš Staķis together with Minister of Culture Nauri Puntulis, Minister of Education and Science Anita Muizniece and representatives of the Song and Dance Festival movement got acquainted with the commissioned construction works of Mežaparks Grand Stage B2 stage – newly built stage buildings and warehouses.
“The reconstructed and put into operation stage is a clear confirmation that the traditions of the Song Festival in Latvia will be strong and will continue for as long as our country continues. The Riga City Council has voted for the manager of the Mežaparks Grand Stage – the “Northern Riga Cultural Association”, which will also be in charge of the VEF Culture Palace and the Culture Palace “Ziemeļblāzma”. The Mežaparks stage must become a venue for culture, including popular culture and events on a daily basis, and the new manager will have a lot of work to take the development strategy of this place to a new level. This is the central place of Latvian cultural events, which confirms the creativity and strength of our nation! ” points out the chairman of the Riga City Council Mārtiņš Staķis.
Minister of Culture Nauris Puntulis: “At the culmination of the annual sunshine – at the summer solstice – we can fully appreciate the mighty appearance of the new stage of Mežaparks, which has already been completed by the builders. It is a real pleasure that we have acquired this essential and outstanding masterpiece of 21st century Latvian architecture and construction, which at the same time symbolically represents the tradition of our nation and contemporary architecture with all the latest technological solutions. Architects, builders and engineers have done their job. The state and the municipality, for their part, have taken care to create favorable conditions for the maintenance and sustainability of the tradition. However, to bring this place alive again by fully renewing the content, to fill both the stage and the public part in its new, much expanded capacity – it is the task of the whole nation and society. More than ever, the sustainability of the Song Festival now depends on the individual choice and responsibility of each individual. ”
“We all know the special sense of community that is present in the closing concerts of the Song Festival. But this feeling, like the love for the song, does not come from itself. It is started at the student song festival and then cultivated over many years. And then for many, many generations, the Student Song Festival is remembered as one of the special summer events with a week-long stay in Riga, a procession, concerts, and also the scorching sun in the stands during rehearsals. This year, due to the pandemic, all this will happen to us, but we will create a sense of celebration differently, so I hope that in the coming years students from all over Latvia will sing this acoustic “silver grove”, the Minister of Education and Culture Anita Muižniece informed those present.
Vilnis Ķirsis, Deputy Chairman of the Riga City Council, Jānis Lange, Executive Director of the City Council, Vladimirs Ozoliņš, Acting Director of the Riga City Council Property Department, Rihards Rusins, Head of the Property Department Construction Department, Juris Poga and Austris Mailītis, JSC LNK Industries Construction Manager Tokarevs, Anita Skudra, Chairman of the Board of SIA “Rīgas meži”, Signe Pujāte, Director of the Latvian National Cultural Center, Agra Bērziņa, Director of the Non-formal Education Department of the State Education Content Center, members of the Song and Dance Festival Council, representatives of institutions involved in the project.
The construction objects implemented in the B2 stage of Mežaparks Grand Stage were handed over to the State Construction Control Bureau on 11 June.
Work on the B2 phase of construction began in October last year. During them, a six-storey high-rise central building was built, which has four above-ground floors and two underground floors with a total area of 10,185 square meters. The machined roof dome has a membrane roof covering an area of 5,324 square meters. The membrane material is woven from the fiber produced by JSC Valmiera stikla šķiedra and woven into a fabric at the Valmiera Glass UK factory in England. The new stage roof will protect the singers from the sun, wind and rain, as well as provide the stage acoustics.
During the construction works, farm buildings were built and the boiler house was also rebuilt. Territory improvement works have been completed and engineering communications have been built. The works were carried out by the company JSC “LNK Industries” on behalf of the Riga City Council Property Department. The newly built stage already has the opportunity to perform 12,874 choirs, which is almost twice as much as before, as well as to accommodate dancers in the expanded dance floor. After the reconstruction, the stage will be more comfortable, more accessible and safer for the participants of the festival.
The renovation of the Mežaparks Grand Stage began on March 11, 2016, when Riga Municipality and the Latvian National Cultural Center signed an agreement with the architects’ offices of Juris Poga and Austra Mailitis on the development of a construction project.
Riga City Council Communication Department
–
