A small Estonian song festival creates excitement in Amsterdam
How do you best demonstrate to the world the significance of the longstanding tradition of Estonian song festivals?
Three active ladies of Estonian heritage, living in the Netherlands, pondered this question and came up with an answer – take the song festival to the locals and showcase it right on their doorstep. This idea was the brainchild of Kaire van der Toorn-Guthan, Agnes Kuusik-Dijkstra and Margit Tera who decided to organise a small European version of the Estonian song festival, entitled “Kõlavöö II: Just Estonishing”, which took place at the end of April in Amsterdam.
Judging by the post-event emotions, they were undoubtedly successful in creating the unique feeling inspired by the song festival. Several choir members admitted that they had tears in their eyes and a lump in their throat when the joint choir of 200 singers, together with the Estonian Youth Orchestra, performed Tõnis Mägi’s “Koit” (“Dawn”) or Peep Sarapik’s “Ta lendab mesipuu poole” (“Flying homewards”).
Read more: Estonian World
Comments