Hosted in Rakvere July 1-5, the happening attracted artists from 22 countries, with 264 events held, including performances, installations and film screenings, most of which were before sell-out crowds.

Attracting precisely 5,832 visitors from Estonia, across Europe and beyond — around a thousand up on 2024's figure — the sharp rise was felt throughout the town of a little over 15,000. "Over the five days it was hard to find available accommodation, and many festival visitors had to look for places to stay outside Rakvere. The city's restaurants and taxi services were also in high demand throughout the festival," said festival director Velvo Väli.

Artistic director Priit Raud stressed at Baltoscandal 2026's opening ceremony that in today's serious, angst-ridden and contradictory times, it is particularly vital to be able to come together to listen to and respect one another, to not fear the unknown, and to recognize how diverse yet surprisingly similar the world around us — and beyond us — really is.

One of the festival's highlights was "La Lettre" by Milo Rau (Switzerland), one of Europe's most acclaimed theater directors and thinkers. This was the first opportunity for Estonian audiences to see one of his productions on home soil, and the director himself was in attendance.

Another big crowd-pleaser turned out to be London-based Estonian artist Julia Masli, who was able to showcase her internationally acclaimed breakthrough work "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha" to a home audience for the first time.

The world premiere of Estonian performance artists Liis Vares and Taavet Jansen's production "I've Been Talking Nonsense" went ahead too, and involved a mixed-reality environment being created at the Ukuaru Music House. In it, audiences got to savor the performance via virtual reality headsets.

Baltoscandal returns to Rakvere in 2028, which will be its 20th edition, to be directed by Raud and Hedi-Liis Toome.

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