The 35th anniversary of the Baltic Way will be marked in Vilnius with a concert “650 Kilometres of Freedom”, featuring more than 200 performers from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
According to Edita Klaunauskaitė, one of the organisers of the event and the head of the state song and dance ensemble Lietuva, it will be one of the biggest events in the Baltics dedicated to this anniversary.
“Our idea is to have an uplifting mood, uplifting music because we see that there are not so many uplifting celebrations in Lithuania. The Baltic Way is a rebellion, a revolution, a statement, and we want to celebrate our way of freedom,” she said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Spectators from Latvia and Estonia are actively invited to the event, she added.
Modestas Pitrėnas, the chief conductor and artistic director of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of the upcoming concert, said that the program of the concert was compiled in collaboration with colleagues from Latvia and Estonia.
“This is a manifesto of our modern state and our modern history. It will be a kind of musical kaleidoscope, about an hour long, featuring about 15 different pieces of music from our three Baltic States,” he said.
According to him, the concert will feature musical works created in the Baltic States over the last 35 years, including contemporary academic music, folk song arrangements, electronic music, and choral music.
“This will not be an evening of hits; it will not be all those hits that were played 35 years ago or that are playing now. It will be pieces that can specifically reflect our cultures – different and yet similar,” Pitrėnas stressed.
The event is estimated to cost over 200,000 euros and is funded by public institutions and corporate sponsors. The concert will take place in the central Cathedral Square of Vilnius on August 23, starting at 19:00.
On August 23, 1989, on the 50th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet pact, around two million Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians joined hands in a protest called the Baltic Way, forming a living human chain stretching for more than 650 kilometres from the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius to the Hermann Tower in Tallinn.
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