Latvia festival ends

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By my estimation, the folk singing festival in Latvia ended yesterday. I missed it again. I really hope to make it one year . . . the chance to see and hear the event is something I'd really like to see:

Every five years, Riga hosts a traditional song and dance festival that draws over 30,000 people--mostly Latvians, and many from expat homes all over the globe. This year is one of those years, and throughout this week (July 5-12) Riga's streets will be alive with the sound of choral music. In the run up to the festival, choirs (some of them hundreds of voices strong) compete with each other to participate in the festival and be named the best. This boggles my mind. That many people that excited over folk songs? Clearly this is a point of national pride. Choral singing is a tradition that stretches back 135 years, a way to assert national identity through centuries of foreign rule, most recently Soviet.

Full article here.