Tonight at 7.16 ended the 25^th Estonian Song Celebration in the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. It was the biggest celebration after Estonia declared re-independence in 1990s.

The Estonian Song Celebration started on Saturday, 4^th of July with a five hour festive parade where 37 000 singers, musicians and folk dancers walked from city center to the Song Festival Grounds.

Saturday’s repertoire consisted of mostly contemporary Estonian folk songs and opera tunes from Verdi and Wagner. Traditional Estonian folk songs from 19th and 2Oth century dominated Sunday’s performances.

On Saturday 75 000 Estonians gathered to Tallinn Song Festival Grounds (Lauluväljak in Estonian) to enjoy choir music. 52 000 tickets were bought to Estonian most important celebration. In addition to that, lots of invited guests and media representatives were present.

On Sunday 68 000 tickets were bought to the Song Celebration To Breathe as One to listen to 27 000 (excluding teachers, accompanists and organizers) singers and musicians, playing popular Estonian folk songs. At the very first song festival, only male choirs were allowed to take part, but today singing was done by a variety of male, female, mixed and children’s choirs.

The above mentioned ca 100 000 people on capital city Tallinn festival grounds is almost double the number of people who attended Michael Jackson’s performance 12 years ago. Michael Jackson performed at the same stage in Tallinn in 1997 to 60 000 fans.

Song and Dance Celebration in number:
Beginning: 2^nd of July

864 Estonian choirs and orchestras

26 430 singers and musicians

534 dancer’s and gymnast’s teams

7460 dancers and gymnasts

41 foreign collectives

1340 foreign musicians, singers, dancers and gymnasts

Next Estonian Song and Dance Celebration will take place in Tallinn in 2014 (starting on 4^th of July)

More information:

Celebration blog: http://tobreatheasone.wordpress.com

Celebration photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobreatheasone

Celebration videos: http://www.youtube.com/tobreatheasone