Reconstruction of Mežaparks stage completed / Article

The same costs of 100 million euros and 5 years for the implementation of the project. The reconstruction project of Mežaparks Grand Stage is so time consuming and expensive. The construction works have been completed, and on June 21, the Mayor of Riga, the Ministers of Culture and Education and Science, the chief conductors of the Song Festival, as well as singers and musicians got acquainted with them.

Twice as many places for choirs, new exhibition rooms and a completely different visual form – in Mežaparks, the long-cherished “Silver Birch” has been completed and put into operation. This will be the 12th stage for the Latvian national symbol – the Song Festival.

The collaboration of architects Austra Mailītis and Juris Poga in Mežaparks has largely been completed, but not yet. Currently, the architects are working to make this monumental place of the Song Festival tradition inhabited and open to everyone.

Austris Mailītis explained: “There is a small pavilion behind the stage building, reconstruction works are taking place there, and there will also be an exposition of the history of the Song Festival stages. Work on these two exhibitions continues, and in 2023, for the 150th anniversary of the Song Festival, those things will be completed. ”

Representatives of the Song Festival movement and those involved in the implementation of the festival arrived on June 21 to evaluate the work done.

Liene Cipule, Director of the Emergency Medical Service, said that she was particularly pleased with the infrastructure of the stage: To be able to quickly cool those who have a heat stroke. And secondly, we hope that the heat stroke will not affect, because there will be an opportunity to take preventive action and cool the singers. ”

Composer, conductor Jēkabs Jančevskis emphasized: “Of course, it was already a bit accustomed to its previous stage and somehow it was probably associated with all the festivities, but I think that this stage can not be disliked – it is both modern and very tasteful, comprehensive and inclusive. “

“From the beginning, it seemed a bit unacceptable for me to tear it all down and leave nothing and nothing, but I know that this hill of sand has remained at the bottom, it is an increase,” noted Lelde Vikmane, the head of the cultural branch of the European Latvian Association. “And we are also happy that there will be much better acoustics, more space and that it is all so well organized. And there will be an exhibition where the diaspora will be included. ”

The stage first tried last year, bringing together about a thousand singers. As conductor Kaspars Ādamsons put it, “it was already clear that this building, although not as large as it is today, already sounded much more acoustically better than the previously felt stage.”

Renovation of Mežaparks Grand Stage has been in several stages since 2016. The phase of the construction of the six-storey high-rise central building, the farm building and the membrane in the roof dome began in October 2020. To date, the project has cost almost 100 million euros and received a loan from the Treasury.

Hereinafter the Mežaparks Grand Stage will be managed by the Northern Riga Cultural Associationwhich will start work in August.

CONTEXT:

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.

The second round of work was divided into stages – B1 and B2. In the first stage of the second stage, the construction of the stage itself was carried out, but in the second stage – the construction of outbuildings and office buildings, as well as the improvement of the territory. Phase B1 construction works performed by the general partnership “LNK, RERE”, and they are the State Construction Control Bureau accepted for operation May 21, 2020. Phase B2 works implemented by the company JSC “LNK Industries”, and they were put into operation on 11 June 2021.

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