Watch again: 'Iseoma' XXVIII Song Festival main concert
Estonia's Song and Dance Festival culminated on Sunday with an almost seven-hour-long concert. More than 32,000 singers and musicians took part in the performance at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn. You can now watch the event again on ERR News.
Unlike Saturday's relentless rain, which poured throughout the first performance, Sunday's sudden showers lifted in the evening, and the sun even briefly made an appearance, to the relief of the thousands of spectators.
In total, around 90,000 people filled the grounds on Sunday, with more than 32,000 performers standing under the Song Stage's arch and an audience of nearly 58,000 gathering to watch.
The 40-song program opened with wind orchestras, followed by performances from boys' and men's choirs, preschool choirs, women's choirs, symphony orchestras, children's choirs, and mixed choirs.
The concert concluded with traditional works such as Miina Härma's "Tuljak", Peep Sarapik's "Ta lendab mesipuu poole", and Gustav Ernesaks' "Mu isamaa on minu arm." You can read about their significance here.
Participating choirs include all age groups and came from all corners of Estonia. The diaspora community in America, Canada, Australia, Europe and elsewhere is also represented.
Photos taken by drones show the scale of the crowd at the final concert.
A "religious service" for Estonians
The Song Festival – known as Laulupidu in Estonian – is not just one of the largest choral events in the world. It's a more than 150-year-old Estonian tradition born out of an aspiration to attain national self-determination after centuries of being ruled over by foreign powers.
The festival's artistic director Heli Jürgenson said: "It is like a religious service of our people, where we affirm our faith in being Estonians."
This year's theme is "Iseoma," meaning "Kinship." It focused on bringing together the Estonian diaspora and regional groups.
Jürgenson said the program features classics from the choral music repertoire as well as new compositions and songs in different Estonian dialects
"We sing about family, home, love, Estonia, nature, being human, the power of song," Jürgenson said. "This year's Song Festival will put a special focus on the richness of our language — dialects."
The first performance took place in the pouring rain on Saturday evening and can be watched again here.
This article was updated to add the gallery.
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Editor: Helen Wright
