XII noorte laulu - ja tantsupidu

(12th Youth Song and Dance Festival)

Every 5 years, Estonia holds a national song and dance festival for the youth (7-27).  This year the theme of the festival was "Mina jään" (Here I'll Stay). We feel so blessed to be here when it was put on.  The dance part was held on Friday and Saturday at Kalev Stadium and the singing part was held on Sunday at the Tallinna Lauluväljak (Tallinn Song Festival Grounds).  A couple of months ago, we secured some tickets for the YSA group to attend.  We bought them in a block so we could sit together.  Come rain or shine, the show goes on.  Wouldn't you know it, the weather was rainy all weekend.  The thing about watching an outdoor event in Estonia is that umbrellas are not allowed, so we all wore rain ponchos.  Even the dancers wore ponchos! The dances and the music were very emblematic of the Estonian love of the land and it's rich culture.  Every parish or county in Estonia has their own traditional costume and you will see this as you look at the videos.  I can't really do it justice to try and describe what we saw and heard.  I'm hoping the videos will do it for me.  At the end is a time-lapse video of the whole program.  The song that is dubbed on the video is called "Kullakera kandjad".  It means Gold Sphere Carriers. It was written especially for this event.  It speaks about the connection of the people with the earth, the forests, the sun and sky.

The whole show in just over 3 minutes