Five on Friday: Song festival highlights

The XIV Latvian Song and Dance Festival in the US was a resounding success. Visitors to Baltimore enjoyed concerts, markets, boat rides and art & fashion exhibits, as well as dinner by a famous Latvian chef and all-night parties with 2,000 of their closest friends. I will be giving you an in-depth look at the Ceļā uz Latvijas Simtgadi event next week, but until then, here are five places to see pictures, video and written impressions of the XIV Vispārējie latviešu dziesmu un deju svētki ASV.

1. The official XIV Latvian Song and Dance Festival Facebook feed features photos and videos from all aspects of the festival. For those Cinderellas who left the balle before midnight, go live for some 2am rotaļas. Songs from the Festival Choir Concert include Ai, nama māmiņa and Jāņu dziesma. Get a look at the bērnu rīts with Iļģi & some of the acts that took the Printful stage, as well as get a behind-the-scenes look at the action in Baltimore last weekend.

2. Visit Ģirts Rība’s YouTube channel for video from the Festival Choir Concert. The eight videos include beloved classics such as Pērkonītis ducināja and Gaismas pils, as well as hits Saule, Pērkons, Daugava and Lēc, saulīte. My favorite song from the concert - Šķind zemīte, rīb zemīte is included...

3. Latvia’s Television had a segment on the Song Festival; being that it aired on the 2^nd, it doesn’t cover the last couple of days, however you’ll see some familiar faces and get a feel of the enthusiasm that encompassed the  event. See also the short video segment of SOLA and the introductory video.

4. For snapshots from a variety of festival visitors, be sure to take a look at the Instagram feeds for not only the official song festival hashtags, #dziesmusvetki2017 and #Latviansongfest2017, but also #dziesmusvetki and #dzsv (although those have photos from other Dziesmu svētki mixed in). Favorite shots include the one from @Saulessister, “Single Ladies” (below), while some of the most interesting videos are close-ups from the Folk Dancing Show, such as Meita puišus dancināja.

These Single Ladies (except for 3 of us) joined the likes of Beyoncé and performed at the Royal Farms Arena today for the Latvian Song and Dance Festival 2017. @latviansongfest2017 Photo courtesy of @tijamarie . . . . . #latviansongfest2017 #latvianfolkdance #folkdance #tautasdejas #tautasmeitas

A post shared by Sandi Vetter (@saulessister) on Jul 2, 2017 at 9:09pm PDT

5. Finally, some individual & group feeds from the song & dance festival participants: Iļģi with their video of Danču vakars… taken from the stage, Ilona Vilciņas video of the Folk Dancing Show finale, Sandra Kalve with her behind-the-scenes at the choir concert photos, poet Laris Krēsliņš’s take on Rakstnieku rīts, and my two favorite albums, Elga’s all-encompassing Baltimoras dziesmu svētki 2017, & Marisa’s heartfelt thank you.

If you have any online links to pictures or video you think should be included, let me know in the comments! Stay tuned next week for more on the song festival, as well as some Baltimore-area attractions...