About
The International Folklore Festival BALTICA is a unique co-project of the three Baltic States and as such, the best proof that we share common aspirations and goals, as well as the same history and, hopefully, the same future.
Latvia's first Baltica Festival took place in 1988 and became the largest folklore festival ever held in the country, bringing with it the wind of change, the public return of the red-white-red flag of the Republic of Latvia and a wider understanding of our living traditional culture. Over the years, the festival has changed, but it has remained the largest gathering of traditional culture, a long-awaited event for the participants themselves, and an opportunity for everyone to live with, participate in, and see what is happening today in the preservation, inheritance, and development of traditional culture. With the festival, a new generation has grown up that continues to celebrate song, dance, music, crafts and other values of intangible cultural heritage.
Twelve of these festivals have taken place in Latvia (1988, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2022).
From June 26 to 30, Latvia will host the 13th International Baltica Folklore Festival, which this year celebrates the diversity of the Latvian and Liv languages under the theme "Language". Folklore groups, ethnographic ensembles, musicians, craftsmen and other promoters of intangible cultural heritage from all regions of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia will gather in Riga, Sigulda and Daugavpils for concerts, workshops, dances and other events. There will also be folklore and traditional music groups from Peru and Ukraine, as well as representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora.