The digital Song and Dance festival is scheduled for July 2 to October 30. According to the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) estimates, the new format will cost the State EUR 2,046,967 instead of the previously planned EUR 4,180,883 in the event of a traditional festival.
The information report prepared by the Ministries of Culture and Health explains that all festivities are planned in a decentralized manner, without bringing together large masses of people and following the “bubble” strategy - only meeting within a set group with a maximum number of people allowed in the country at that time.
There are no plans for catering, going somewhere to stay overnight or organizing long trips.
On the other hand, the historical evidence of the festival during the pandemic will include videos: interviews, video sets that will be made available to the general public on a variety of digital platforms and television formats. The festival's overall program will be shaped by a variety of events in chorus singing, vocal music, instrumental music, dance, visual and visual plastic art, folklore.
According to the information submitted by the local authorities, 2,090 collectives and 40,049 participants are preparing for the festival.
Initially, XII Latvian School Youth Song and Dance Festival was scheduled to take place from 6 to 12 July 2020, but due to the spread of Covid-19, it was decided at the end of March last year to postpone the festival for 2021.
As previously reported, the 11th Youth Song and Dance festival was held in 2015. The festival's concerts were attended by some 66,600 people, while altogether events drew about 200,000 visitors to the festival. Some 37,890 young singers and dancers participated in the festival, which serves as a downsized version of the Song and Dance festival (the latter is also held every five years).
