From 6 to 12 July 2020, XII Latvian School Youth Song and Dance Celebration will take place. It is planned that more than 35,000 participants from Latvia and abroad will take place at the Celebration.

During the Celebration, 60 events will be held, out of which 40 will be free of charge and tickets will be sold to 20 events. The events will be dedicated to all cultural education fields, including choir music, folk and contemporary dance, brass and symphony orchestra, kokle, folklore, school theatres, visual and visually plastic arts. Participants of the Celebration include pupils from the schools and professional educational establishments of Latvia, as well as pupils of music schools, representatives of Latvian diaspora, and children with special needs.

The key events of XII Latvian School Youth Song and Dance Celebration are the choir concert “Child of Songs” that will take place on 11 July in the Mežaparks Open-Air stage, folk dance performance “Sun Winds Golden Jewel” that will take place on 10 and 11 July in the Daugava Stadium and the parade of participants that will be organised on the last day of the Celebration this time, on Sunday, 12 July and will be closed with a musical event dedicated to participants in Lucavsala.

Sales of tickets to the events will start in May when the reviews are ended and the composition of participants is known. Procurement of ticket sales service will be announced in February. The planned ticket prices are from 5 to 30 euros. Children up to the age of 7 who will not take a separate seat can enter the events free of charge. A 20% discount will be applied to pupils and large families with the “3+ Family Card”. The lowest ticket price will be provided to people with disabilities and their companions.

The planned budget of the Celebration if 6,354,235 euros, out of which 33% will be used for catering, 14% will be used to accommodate the participants, 12% will be paid to the technical and administrative staff, 9% will be paid for the sound and light services, 9% will be paid for the artistic organisation, 8% will be used to ensure technical opportunities at the locations of the Celebration, 8% will be used to provide security and public safety, 4% will be used to rent premises, 3% will be used to make ID cards and equipment for participants, and 1% will be used to pay royalties.

“The School Youth Song and Dance Celebration is the most significant event in the school youth target audience from the age of 7 to 22. After assessment of the Celebration of 2015, we plan to implement several improvements dedicated to the security of participants from different aspects. First, completely new infrastructure will be ensured in Mežaparks and Daugava Stadium that complies with modern requirements. The operating management group of the Celebration has started working and it is led by General, Artis Velšs. It is important for us that the work of the operating management group would start timely, and we would be aware of and manage different risk factors, coordinate the work of security and public order services before the Celebration and during it. The programme of the Celebration has been created to ensure that the emotional culmination — parade — would take place on the last day when no other events are planned. After the parade, the participants are welcome to a musical event dedicated to them in Lucavsala,” said the Executive Director of the Celebration, A. Bērziņa.

“We have assessed the workload of participants carefully. They will be in Riga one day more to balance out the rehearsal and concert process and for them to relax and enjoy the atmosphere in Riga. We will pay special attention to balanced nutrition. Before and during the Celebration, we have planned special instructions about different security matters dedicated to participants, staff and heads of collectives. During the pre-Celebration phase and during the Celebration, we will also focus on expertise, advice, opinions of different specialists in regard to psychology, catering, workload and other matters related to the Celebration.”

Another significant part of the Celebration is to implement climate friendly mind-set and practice using different tools — informative and practical, providing an opportunity to the participants to learn and acquire new habits. Before and during the Celebration, organisers and every participant of the Celebration can perform assessment of their impact on the climate using a special calculator developed for the Celebration. To achieve climate neutrality of the Celebration, special attention will be paid to transport choices of guests and participants, procurements of sustainable goods and services, water and behaviour in the accommodations of participants

Organiser of XII Latvian School Youth Song and Dance Celebration, National Centre for Education of Republica of Latvia.
Sponsor: Swedbank
Supporter: Latvian Environmental Protection Fund