Estonia opens registration for 2028 song and dance festivals

Registration has opened for the 2028 XIV Youth Song and Dance Festival and the XXIX General Song and XXII Dance Festival, titled “The Way of Being,” ERR reported on Tuesday. Groups wishing to participate can register until October 31.

The festival will run for two weeks, from June 30 to July 9, bringing together the youth festival and the general song and dance festival traditions for the first time. The first week will focus on dance and folk music, while the second will feature the procession and song festival.

Margus Toomla, a board member of the Song and Dance Festival Foundation, said the unusually extensive programme would give more people the opportunity to attend a dance performance or song festival concert. He also highlighted the Estonian Open Air Museum as a larger venue for the folk music festival, allowing audiences to experience the event in an authentic setting.

The theme “The Way of Being” connects the song, dance and folk music festivals into a conceptual whole. Riivo Jõgi, the artistic director of the song festival, said the phrase allowed broad artistic and philosophical interpretation.

According to Jõgi, the three-day song festival will follow an axis of past, present and future. The first day will look back through music that has moved Estonian people across different decades, with a concert built around singing together with the choir. The second day will be dedicated to adult singers, while children and young people will perform on the third day.

Jõgi said the festival would explore the meanings of being Estonian and coming together through shared history, linking the three days into a single whole.