Lithuania Music and Arts Festivals

Events: Kaunas Jazz, Vilnius Carnival, St Christopher Summer Fest

Mar 2, 2007

This small Baltic country offers holidaymakers a choice of fun, city-wide celebrations. If you're a jazz, classical music event or festival fan, get ready to party.

Since gaining independence from the old Soviet Union, the Baltic Republic of Lithuania has been rapidly forging its own unique identity. This is helped by the burgeoning number of festivals filling the calendar, and here are arguably the best five.

At a first glance, Lithuania’s second city seems a somewhat unlikely place for people to wig out with interminable saxophone solos and nod moodily as they pluck away at a double bass, but in April the city is overtaken by the jazz fraternity. Performances take place across Kaunas, and as with all jazz festivals, the audiences seem to be enjoying things almost as much as the self-indulgent musicians on stage.

Taking on Rio de Janeiro on this front is, let’s face it, a little ambitious. Rio has plenty of beautiful people, happy to strip down to virtually nothing and dance the night away in the warm sunshine. Vilnius has hardy souls that are prepared to brave the cold and wiggle it about a bit. Never fear though, for what is maybe lacking in heat and numbers is more than made up for in attitude, as the Lithuanians clamber over each other to get on the best floats, and throw themselves into the fun with gusto. It takes place at the end of May and start of June.

For the rest of June, Vilnius is a bit more sedate, and the Vilnius Festival takes over. There’s no wild leaping about on floats here, as this is a classical music festival. It’s concertos over celebrations and strings over silliness.

Lithuania Music and Arts Festivals - St Christopher Summer Festival

Also held in Vilnius, this July-long festival is mainly about jazz, but choirs and orchestras join in the proceedings as well. Over the years, the St Christopher Summer Festival has gained an increasingly big reputation, and it’s now got a high quality line-up.

Lithuania Music and Arts Festivals - The Uzupis National Day

Not many people know that Lithuania is home to a separatist movement, but go to the suburb of Uzupis in Vilnius, and you’ll find a few rather dishevelled freedom fighters. The Independent Republic of Uzupis, as the locals prefer to call it, was declared by the same bunch of artists that lobbied the Lithuanian government to put up a statue of Frank Zappa in the city centre. They have their own constitution, which seems to revolve largely around the rights of cats, and celebrate their ‘national’ day on April 1st. Quite a fitting date, really.

Want more festivals? Here are the five best in…

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