Võrafest brings 2,000 gymnasts and folk dancers to Pärnu

A three-day gymnastics and folk dance festival has begun in Pärnu, bringing together more than 2,000 gymnasts and folk dancers from across Estonia, ERR reported.

The first Võrafest fills the city with participants who are rehearsing and learning new dance styles together, while also performing on stages set up across Pärnu.

“Võrafest is a gymnastics and folk dance festival. Its main idea was to bring folk dancers and gymnasts together in a completely different environment,” organiser Karel Johannes Vähi said. Participants can perform routines they enjoy and learn different forms of movement in workshops, he added.

The festival will end with a large dance celebration on Sunday at Pärnu Beach Stadium, where all 2,000 participants will pay tribute to the history of Estonian gymnastics and folk dance and to its role models.

The tribute will include Anna Raudkats, whose 140th birth anniversary is being marked this year, Vähi said.

The organisers, the Estonian Gymnastics Federation and the Society for Folk Dance and Folk Music, hope the festival will become a long-term tradition.