The Estonian Folk Song Festival

It's been a few days since I was able to post to our blog.  It's been one thing after another, and I just haven't gotten to it.  However, I'm back, and I have a couple of interesting things to share with you.

In the last post, I mentioned that we were going to the American Embassy for a July 4th Celebration (on July 3rd, but who cares?).  Silly me.  Here I thought I was going to a party where we would be able to meet a bunch of other Americans and talk with one another and get to know each other.  Boy, was I ever wrong.  It was nothing but a political event.  There were more Latvians there than Americans!  I know, I know -- some of you are thinking, Boy, how dumb can she be?  I guess I was thinking it would be what I wanted it to be -- a taste of back home.

Here are some pictures from the event.  Don't ask me who anyone is, because I don't know.

Actually, I do know who this is -- Mark Pekala, the US Ambassador.

                                              At least the kids are having fun!

See what I mean about it NOT being an intimate party of Americans?  I can't believe I was so nàive. The invitation said to dress casually.  As you can see, most of these people are NOT dressed casual. Don and I, however, always do what the teacher says.  Boy, did I feel out of place.  We did get a free McDonald's hamburger, a brownie, and a warm bottle of Coke.  Woo-hoo!  One of the things that bothered me about the event took place during the national anthems.  The band played our national anthem first, and I sang along quietly.  I couldn't hear anyone else singing.  The Latvian national anthem was played next, and all the Latvians in attendance broke out singing.  I was ashamed to be an American.  Here were all these people who had been through decades of repression unashamedly singing their country's national anthem with pride, while the Americans there who had never experienced being under any other country's rule hardly sang a note.  How sad I was for my country.

On a happier note...

I got to go to the Estonian Folk Music Festival this last weekend.  There were over 25,000 singers participating and well over 100,000 people in attendance.  Boy, it was some trip!  We left Riga by bus on Saturday morning.  We arrived in Tallinn at 1:30, and the first concert wasn't until 8:00 that evening, so we should have had plenty of time to go to our hotel (20 minutes outside Tallinn) and get back to the concert.  I asked a lady at the bus station where I could pick up bus #286 to take us to our hotel.  She told us to take Tram #2 to the city bus station where we would then catch the bus.  Well, she was wrong on both counts.  Because of this massive Folk Song Festival parade through town, the trams weren't running.  We ended up having to walk to the city bus station.  After we found it, we discovered that bus #286 does NOT go to the bus station -- it's not an intercity bus.  We walked around for awhile and finally found the spot where bus #286 was picking people up.  We rode out to our hotel.  It still wasn't too late, so I wasn't worried.  We got back on the bus and rode into Tallinn.  We went to the bus station and waited to pick up bus #34A that would take us to the festival grounds.  Well, guess what? No buses were passing through the bus station that day because of the parade, either.  We sat and waited for a while, but we finally realized that it was futile.  We started walking and searching for the bus.  We saw several city buses lined up on this one street, so we decided to wait there.  After what seemed like forever, bus #34A arrived.  We got on, sat down, and sighed with relief.  We were on our way.

Don and I had gone to the festival grounds when Debbie and Dan were here, so we knew where it was.  We knew that it was right across the street from the Baltic Sea and that the bus would drop us off right in front of the grounds.  As we rode along on bus #34A, we kept looking for water so that we would know when our stop was coming up.  We never did see any water, and our bus never did go to the festival grounds.  (We decided Sunday afternoon that it didn't do that part of the route due to the parade marching out to the grounds.)  We rode it back into town, thoroughly discouraged.  By the time we got into town, it was 8:00 -- too late to go to the concert.  We ate dinner and then took bus #286 back to the hotel. Needless to say, I was frustrated.  I was tired.  And I cried.  We went to bed and set the alarm in plenty of time to get to the Sunday afternoon concert that started at 2:00.

We left our hotel around 9:00 on Sunday morning.  We rode into Tallinn, got off at a downtown stop and walked to the city bus station.  Since we had ridden bus 34A the previous night, and it didn't take us to the grounds, we didn't know what bus to take.  Unfortunately, I had no Internet connection, so I couldn't check on my phone.  We saw a woman in folk festival clothing and asked her if she was going to the festival.  She said she was.  We asked her what bus she was taking and she told us #35.  The computer had told me to take 34A, but we shrugged our shoulders and got on #35.  Lo and behold, we got to the festival grounds without a bit of trouble.  It took us to a side street, but I didn't care.  At least we were there.  I was pumped!

We arrived there around 10:15, and they weren't opening the gates until noon.  We walked around a bit and took in the sights.  Around 11:00, we decided that we needed to get something to eat.  There was only one restaurant close to the grounds, and it wasn't open.  We came upon this little pizza shack, and since there was no other choice, we ordered an Americana pizza with no black olives.  We were even able to get a thick crust.  We didn't know what to expect, but it was the greatest pizza we have had since we got here.  It was awesome.  After eating, we walked back to the main gate area.  I took lots of pictures of people in folk costume.  I think all of the singers were wearing costumes of some kind.

The gates opened, and we went in -- along with lots and lots of other people.  Since the concert didn't start until 2:00, it was still pretty early, and the crowd wasn't bad.  There were lots of tents set up with all kinds of things for sale.  I ended up buying a hat to keep the sun off of my face.  We walked around a bit and then decided to "stake our claim."  We bought the cheap tickets for the concert, so our assigned seats were in the back on some large patches of grass.  We had taken a blanket with us to sit on.  We found a spot that we thought would stay in the shade and sat down.  More and more people were milling in.  I took off and walked through the tents once more.  When I got back to our "seat," the grassy areas had filled almost completely up with people.  As I stood there and looked around, I saw hundreds of people standing in the "aisles" and to the back and sides of the area still looking for a place to sit -- without much success.  The concert started, and the hundreds of people looking for a place to sit just kept walking the aisles looking.  Because we were sitting on the ground, we couldn't see much on stage because of the people standing in the aisles in front of us.  We were able to hear, though, and it was fantastic hearing over 7,000 children's voices singing together.  We heard two children's choirs (one had 7000+ singers, and one had 5,000+ singers) and the orchestra (over 700 players).  It was awesome.  Between each group, the risers had to be emptied and the next group brought on.  While I thought it would take a lot of time to do that, it surprisingly went very fast.  They've been doing these festivals since 1869, so I guess they have it all figured out by now.

There were a lot of different choirs performing, but after the third group, we decided to leave.  The crowd was getting horrible, and Don and I were getting tired of being kicked and trampled by some kids behind us and by adults who were stepping over us to try and find a seat.  One thing about Latvians is that they have no qualms about running right over you, and they don't apologize for doing it, either.  While I would have loved to stay and hear the adult choirs, Don was having a "Popeye" moment -- "That's all's I can stand, and I can't stands no more," so we left.  We stood up, picked up our blanket, and headed out of the arena area.  We still had a ways to go to get to the gate so we could leave, and scads of people were still outside of the arena area trying to get in to hear and watch the concert.  Boy, were we ever salmon swimming against the current!  I have never been so mashed up against other people in my life.  I couldn't help but think how awful it would be to get stuck in a stampede.  It was awful trying to push ourselves one way while all these people around us were pushing the other way.  We finally made it, got to the bus, and rode back to Tallinn to get the bus back to Riga.  We arrived back at our apartment around 11:00, and we were really glad to get back home.

My goal in going to the festival was, first of all, to experience it.  America has nothing like it -- a music festival with over 25,000 participants and over 100,000 people in the audience.  Woodstock may have been close, but they took their clothes off.  Don't worry -- we didn't. (Although it was warm enough that I wished I could.)  Secondly, I wanted to hear what thousands of voices sounded like singing together.  I wondered if they would have problems staying together, but it was a glorious sound with no problems whatsoever.  Thirdly, I wanted to watch and listen as these people sang the songs of their country.  These songs were what helped them keep their identity through years of repression, and it is fun to see and hear them sing these well-loved songs.

I took lots of pictures.  While I can't include them all, I will include some of the ones that I think do the best job of sharing the experience.

Here is what the gate area looked like when we first arrived.  Not too bad.

Here is a sign we saw on the side of a building.  I am assuming that it is the longitude and latitude position
of where we were.  

Here is the pizza we got from that little pizza shack.  It looked so good that I decided to take a picture of it.
Believe me, it was as good as it looked.

The above two pictures show two groups of young girls that were participating.  Their outfits weren't nearly as fancy as some that we saw.  I don't think anyone can participate in these festivals as an individual.  I think everyone has to be a part of a choir, either a school choir or a community choir.

Below are just some pictures I took of various individuals.  If there is something special about the picture, I have put it under it.

Here is a young boy dressed up.  I don't know if he really wanted his picture taken or not,
but Grandma made him do it.

Here's Grandma.  Isn't she sweet looking?  I think one of the greatest things about these festivals is that
they are multi-generational.

Here they are walking off together, hand in hand.

Here is a bunch of young guys dressed in costume.  I didn't think they would let me take their
picture, but they really got into it.

As I mentioned earlier, the grounds are just across the street from the Baltic Sea.  The second picture shows me standing in the Baltic Sea.  Boy, was that water ever cold!  I don't know how the two girls (and everyone else for that matter) could stand it.

The next several pictures are pictures of the people and the grounds.

Here is what the gate area looked like as we were standing in line to go in.  There were people everywhere.

Here is a tower with a flame burning on the top of it.  The flame gets lit at the beginning and continues burning until the festival is over.

Here is a picture of the stands with the largest children's choir.  Look how many children are up there singing.  It was so exciting to see that many children singing together.  It gave me goose bumps.  This picture was actually taken while they were rehearsing.  Notice that the blue chairs for the adult participants are empty.

This picture is what it looked like during one of the children's choir performances.  Notice that the blue chairs are now filled with people and that people are walking in front of my camera trying to find a place to sit. 

These next three pictures are of the crowd around us.  The grounds are full.  There are people all around us, standing in the aisles beside us, in front of us, and behind us.

 This was one of the warmest days that we had had in four weeks.  As you can see, there was a bright blue sky, and the sun was beating down on us.  I decided that I would buy a floppy hat to keep the sun off of my face.  I don't like wearing hats, because I don't think I look good in them.  You know how some people can wear a hat and look really sophisticated in it? Not me.  As you can see from my picture, I look pretty dumb in them.  However, I also didn't want my face to get burnt to a crisp.  Here's me in my hat.  It's a great one, isn't it?  Unfortunately, I lost it somewhere along the way.  I think I left it at the bus station.  Oh, well, such is life...

Oh, I have one more picture to share with you.  While we were eating our pizza, this guy came up to the window to place his order.  He had this great tattoo on his arm.  Don decided that if he ever got a tattoo, this would be the one he would get -- with a trout instead of a Northern Pike.  (As if Don would ever get one.)  I asked the guy if I could take a picture of his tattoo.  He probably thought I was being silly, but he let me do it.  I don't like tattoos, but I thought that one was pretty cool.

Well, it's time to do some running around, so I need to close.  We're coming home a few days early. Instead of leaving on the 22nd, we'll be coming home on the 16th.  I'll try and get a couple more posts put on before we leave.

See ya!