Songs and dances will sound again in Klaipėda!

We invite you to the festival of songs of the western region of Lithuania in Klaipėda!

The Song Festival of the Western Region of Lithuania is a tradition with probably the largest and most numerous participants in this region, commemorating the rich and meaningful event of the Lithuanian Song Festival, covering the experience of the Little Lithuania Song Festival, as well as the great contribution of the Klaipėda region to the overall development of Lithuanian culture and especially the history of the Song Festival .

Today we celebrate the honorable 100th anniversary of the annexation of Klaipėda region to Lithuania. Therefore, this year’s Song Festival of the Western Region of Lithuania is dedicated to celebrating this important date.

After all, song festivals in this region did not appear out of nowhere. Vydūnas started organizing them much earlier, still on the Rambynos mountain. And they grew into a universal festival of Lithuanian songs, the first of which, back in June 1927. 6th was held in Klaipėda. Here, together with the entire society of this region, the first Festival of Lithuanian Songs of Little Lithuania was celebrated. Thanks to the concerted efforts of Vydūnas, Antanas Vaičiūnas, Adams Brakas, other Lithuanian luminaries and the regional Directorate, the Holiday has become an unprecedented manifestation of the spiritual culture and national vitality of all Lithuanians.

Every time, when organizing any choral event, especially the Song Festival, I wonder what the future of choral music, choral culture, Song Festival traditions in our city, and in Lithuania as a whole is like, and I always answer to myself and want to believe it – very bright! I strongly believe that!

The guardians of our nation’s altar, the luminaries, also believed in that. Vydūnas, a Lithuanian philosopher, writer, cultural and public figure of Little Lithuania, wrote meaningfully about song festivals. In 1927, when he started the first Lithuanian Song Festival of Little Lithuania, he said: “To celebrate is to sing from the depths of your soul, it means to bring your voice, that is, your humanity, to the world…”.

Almost a century has passed and this era challenges us, knocks on our souls and minds again with great concern and anxiety, it is a real test for all of us who are already used to “sitting” at home, on virtual websites, drowning in our own worlds, and also in work from safe houses , to close ourselves off from problems, to become alienated, to become indifferent and insensitive to our land, its culture, the traditions of our people, our existence and identity… and all this in the name of what, – a comfortable and fulfilling life?

So let’s not be surprised that weapons are being rattled in the world again, evil forces are again attacking the nation, man, and freedom. Yes, it is not happening in our house today, but if we remain indifferent, it will soon come to our house…

I have repeatedly said about this that the biggest resistance to that alienation and indifference is national self-awareness, national resilience, national culture and love for our country, let’s cultivate it in ourselves. This is our home, this is our strength!

The world does not have what we have – the source of our nation’s identity and pride – Song Festivals! The tradition of Lithuanian song festivals has been highly valued by the world organization UNESCO as a protected and cherished value of the nation’s intangible heritage. We are proud of that!

We are also proud of the fact that the city of Klaipėda was and is one of the greatest bastions of defense and nurturing of the values ​​and traditions of the Song Festival, building bridges to the future, to the future of all of us, with its rich past and present! We still have something to be proud of: after all, we nurture not only a rich tradition of choral culture and Song Festivals, we have accumulated a great deal of experience, but we also have a place dedicated to it – the Summer Concerts Estrada, which is an integral and inseparable part of this heritage. It is a sacred place where Song Festivals take place. It is a place where we witness the sustainability and strength, unity, nobility, dignity of our nation, it is like an altar to us, where the holy fire of the Song Festival burns, which every Lithuanian carries in his heart, and when everyone unites in the great Song Festival, Lithuania is reborn, purified, getting prettier…. We must not lose it, it must be saved!

The Song Festival is a sacred phenomenon of our nation, and a place, for example, a church of national and choral culture, where Song Festival rites and indulgences take place, as the nation’s highest spiritual transformation, where the nation’s identity, way and being are witnessed and confessed. The song festival is a factor that brings the nation together, it is an invitation to harmony, unity, an aspiration to create, ennoble, and restore Lithuania, it is an invitation to sacrifice, a meaningful way of living and working not for personal sake, but for Lithuania’s well-being – “For the sake of…”. These are the fundamental values ​​of the Song Festival, the values ​​of the National Anthem, which in each of our hearts, given meaning in artistic language, become a source of the nation’s strength and freshness, gushing from the depths of the oldest centuries to the present day, are reconsidered and actualized not only in the Song Festival, but also in everyday life, ennobling and strengthening us in the faith that we are, in the faith that we will be here, in the land loved by our grandfathers, grandfathers, parents and ourselves, in our LITHUANIA. This is the essence and meaning of our Song Festivals!

Thus, the goals of the Song Festival of the Western Region of Lithuania are very relevant in today’s context – Lithuanian song is to educate the young generation for goodness and beauty, to instill love and respect for Lithuania, its people, history, culture, to nurture and continue the traditions of choral singing and song festivals.

On the other hand, the 2024 Centennial Lithuanian Song Festival “Kad giria žaliuautsi” is approaching. The Song Festival of the Western Region of Lithuania is one of the stages of preparation for this song festival.

The events of the Song Festival will start as early as 2023. on the morning of June 11, where from 10 a.m. Citizens and all guests will be welcomed by a fair of folk artists at the entrances to Klaipėda’s summer concert stage. 3:00 p.m. A solemn ceremony of presenting the regalia of the song festival to the conductors and organizers will take place on the educational sailing ship “Brabander” of Klaipėda University. And after the solemn ceremony, citizens will be invited to visit the sailing ship (Klaipėda cruise ship terminal).

We also invite you from 3:45 p.m. to listen to the music concert of the Klaipėda carillon. And from 4:00 p.m. the solemn procession of the participants of the song festival will begin through the streets of the city (from Atgimimo Square, Herkaus Manto St. to the Summer Concert Stage). Not only the participants of the song festival will take part in the procession, but also the Klaipėda Jazz Orchestra, conductor KęstutisSovabei, the Klaipėda “Vyturio” pro-gymnasium drum orchestra, conductors Augustinas and Skaistutė Užkuratai, Klaipėda district’s Priekule culture center folk music band “Bengeliai”, conductor Jolanta Petraitienė.

We hope that once again the whole city will be drawn to the Klaipėda summer concert stage by the participants of the parade, at 5:00 p.m. the main event will be held – the festival of songs of the western region of Lithuania, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the annexation of Klaipėda region to Lithuania.

Here we will hear beautiful and melodious choral songs, we will enjoy abundant dances and orchestras and ensembles of national instruments, the celebration will be attended by the Šeikos Dance Theater, director Agnija Šeiko, soloists Violeta and Vilius Tarasovai and other soloists, the Lithuanian Army Orchestra, leader, bandmaster Major Egidijus Ališauskas, will accompany the celebration. other artists.

And most importantly, we want to invite all the guests and residents of Klaipėda, all the spectators to end the song festival with the Nation’s evening. We would not split up, but we would still be together, we would sing folk songs, we would dance, together we would all testify that we are the country of songs, after all, this is a celebration for all of us!

320 artistic groups and more than 7,500 of their participants from all over Lithuania will participate in this year’s Klaipėda Song Festival. At the festival, we will see a wide spectrum of artistic expression, including choirs, orchestras and ensembles of national instruments, and dancers.

On behalf of the organizers and organizers of the song festival and on behalf of the Council of Klaipėda City Choir Association “Aukuras”, we sincerely invite all Klaipėda citizens and their guests, supporters of the festival, together with our families, to the song festival of the western region of Lithuania, let’s be together, let’s testify that we are a wonderful nation that loves our land and its rich traditions, the traditions of song festivals!