6th folkBALTICA 21 - 25 April
The 6th folkBALTICA, which took place from 21-25 April 2010 was a great success in many respects. Together with the groups involved we were able ensure that all 85 artists arrived on time despite the chaos caused by the Icelandic volcano; this involved ferries, trains, hired, and in some cases even purchased. Thanks to the Latvian cultural ministry it was even possible for two musicians to be flown in from Canada.
All 45 events took place as scheduled, with over 5,500 visitors in all plus 4,000 visitors to the special Latvia exhibition at Flensburg’s maritime museum entitled “Under the sign of the Sun”. The high-calibre programme attracted high-ranking visitors to Flensburg and the German-Danish border region in the shape of former Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the Latvian minister of culture Ints Dalderis and the Schleswig-Holstein minister of education and the arts Dr. Ekkehard Klug.
This year’s festival was distinguished more than ever by intensive personal and musical encounters which we very much encourage with our “specials”, like the Nordic-Baltic “Sun Concert”, the midnight “Magic Flutes” concert, the “Kokles and Kantele” master meeting, and many other mutual experiences. This is certainly also the reason why all the musicians were so flexible and committed during the volcano crisis, to ensure that this event, which took months of planning, could take place as planned and give us the results we had so looked forward to. And now we can look forward to the after effects: The Sami yoik singers Aillos (Inger Ante Ailu Gaup) and the Latvian Trio Smite/Karkle/Cinkuss want to continue working together with a new project. The guitarist of the Crane Dance Trio, Matthias Perez, who teaches folk music at the Swedish music academy in Iggesund, wants to invite the two young Latvian kokles players Laima Jansone and Kristina Sibina to play to at the academy. His students will certainly get quite a shock, in that they have absolutely no idea of what is going on in Latvia, and of such high quality, says Matthias.
After the great enthusiasm met by the two sold-out “Sun Concerts”, everyone involved is burning to perform the programme again. Let’s wait and see…
One thing we can say with absolute certainty is that the cultural network in the Baltic Sea Region is definitely alive and kicking!
The 7th folkBALTICA will be held from 6 - 10 April 2011