From July 18 to July 23 the Saulkrasti Jazz festival will, for the nineteenth time, see the sunny seaside town of Saulkrasti drown in waves of sound. The festival famously features workshops for aspiring musicians, interspersed with performances by world-renowned virtuosos.
A veritable cocktail of sound will enter the air around Daugavgrīva Fortress, with the Komēta festival offering Syrian wedding music, reggae from Ghana and Yemeni Jewish melodies from Israel at a 400-year-old historical site from July 7 to July 10, reported Latvian Radio Thursday.
On Saturday the Rīga Motor Museum revved up after a three-year-long restoration, and now its main, interactive exhibition showcases the advent of motorized vehicles in the context of 19- and 20th-century history, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga Saturday.
The colors of ancient Baltic folk costumes were dominated by dark blue, brown, red and yellow hues, each carrying its own symbolic meaning.
May 24 marks 280 years since, under the auspices of architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the first brick of the sumptuous Rundāle palace was laid. The former summer residence of Ernst Johann von Biron, prince of Courland, is the largest and most luxurious baroque castle in Latvia.
Dozens of nationally significant individuals have found their final resting place at the Great Cemetery (Lielie kapi) in Rīga. Despite the achievements of their lives, their resting places are disturbed by decay and vandalism. The capital's authorities have been discussing the maintenance of the cemetery with the owners - Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church - for years, but so far to no avail.
Security experts say Latvians have a lot to learn about the internet: many store passwords on Post-Its, forgo important security updates, and open dangerous emails, reported Latvian Television Wednesday.
The Museum of Decorative Arts and Design - located in the walls of the ancient St. George Church - has become a veritable glass sanctuary with dozens of brittle figures taking over the former church in Artis Nīmanis' fresh new exhibit 'Fragile', reported Latvian Radio Wednesday.
Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga reports from Latvia's National Art Museum (LNMM) where she had the chance to look at artworks returning to the recently renovated museum prior to the May 4 grand opening.
The joint Baltic Pavilion between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will feature over 100 items at the 2016 Biennale in Venice, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga Thursday.
Drivers in Rīga can expect to spend many more hours in traffic this summer as wide stretches of the key Brīvības and Lāčplēša streets will be reconstructed, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga Monday.
Latvian Television is about to start broadcasting the miniseries "War and Peace" by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), partially filmed in Latvia. Now news have surfaced about the series' soundtrack, which it turns out was rescued by the choir "Latvia" at the very last moment, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga Friday.
Wagner, Berlioz, Liszt, and Clara Schumann are figures the Rīga City Theater, also known as Wagner Hall, saw in its heyday. Closed for ten years now, it needs renovation. Funds have been repeatedly sought with little success, and the Culture Ministry now hopes the historic hall could be resurrected with help from local entrepreneurs, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga Friday.
This day twenty five years ago, five people defending Latvia's independence were shot by the Interior Ministry. January 20 marks the 25th anniversary of the events, reported Latvian Radio Wednesday.
About twenty minutes prior to the opening, a queue longer than 100 meters was formed by the freshly-restored Latvian national art gallery on Saturday, with visitors mostly very happy about the new look, called "gorgeous", "surprising", "like in a little Versailles" by the visitors, reported Latvian Radio Sunday.
Latvian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Tatjana Ždanoka, who controversially attended Crimea as an 'international observer' during the 2014 referendum on secession widely condemned by the West, has revealed that the European Parliament (EP) covered her traveling expenses for the trip after all, reported Latvian Radio Tuesday.
"I want to build a monument that would be understandable to everyone in all eras," the sculptor Kārlis Zāle once said. His greatest project - the Freedom Monument is about to turn 80 on November 18.
This year celebrates the 100th anniversary of Latvian Riflemen, and 75 years have passed since urban poet Aleksandrs Čaks' collection of epic poems Mūžības skartie (Those touched by eternity) was released in a single volume. The book describes the fights of the Latvian Riflemen, and a commemorative exhibition Čaka skartie (Those touched by Čaks) was opened Tuesday at Rīgas Mākslas telpa, reported Latvian Radio's Māra Rozenberga on Wednesday.
"Everything's fine, except the mess we're in", are the words detained young people use to describe their lives in the Cēsis youth detention center. "Everything's fine" is also the name of a theater project in which dramatists from Latvia and Italy worked with young offenders in the colony for six months. Latvian Radio paid Cēsis a visit and met the directors and the actors themselves.
The 20th annual new theater festival Homo Novus will take place from September 4 to September 10 in Rīga. Foreign guests will be able to experience the festival too, as many of the events transcend linguistic barriers. It coincides with the White Night held in the evening of September 5th.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Pļaviņas Hydroelectric power plant (HPP), built in 1965. The plant is responsible for one quarter of Latvia's electricity output - and for completely submerging Staburags - a national symbol comparable to the Lorelei in Germany.
Although the Presidency is over, the culture program of the Latvian Presidency ends only in November with the closing of The Venice Biennale. The ambitious culture program of Latvia's EU Presidency brought Latvian culture to 11 countries within and without Europe.
The allied Saber Strike military training exercises began Monday at the National Armed Forces (NBS) Training Ground in Ādaži, while NATO started its BALTOPS naval drills in the Baltic Sea on Friday.
The Baltic region’s greatest medieval church – the Riga Dom Cathedral, is once again hidden behind scaffolding as its tower undergoes possibly the most significant reconstruction works since the end of the 16th Century.
Latvia’s foremost leading lady of literature Aspazija (Elga Rozenberga) was hailed on the occasion of her 150th birthday Monday, March 16 not just in Latvia but also elsewhere around the world where she is well known as one of Latvia’s key poets and playwrights, and the life companion of her age-cohort and soulmate, the poet, politician and social philosopher Rainis (Jānis Pliekšāns).
Since 1995 a total of 142,557 people have become citizens of Latvia through the process known as 'naturalization'. This week marked exactly two decades since the naturalization process has been running. What have been the greatest challenges for naturalization during this time, what conclusions can we draw and what are the prospects for the future?
Residents of Latvia with stamps whose value is shown in the no-longer valid former national currency, the lat, are urged to use them up now this month, as they will no longer be honored at the state postal service Latvijas pasts beginning with the New Year, January 1, 2015, Latvian Radio reported Tuesday.
