You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Estonian. (May 2014) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the Estonian article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Estonian Wikipedia article at [[:et:Üldlaulupidu]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|et|Üldlaulupidu}} to the talk page.
VI Estonian Song Festival, view of the stage (Tallinn, 1896)VIII Estonian Song Festival (1923)Conductors of X Song festival (1933) From left: Raimund Kull, Tuudur Vettik, Juhan Aavik, Juhan Simm and Verner Nerep.VIII Song Festival (1950)Conductor Neeme Järvi at the XXV Song Festival (2009)XXVI Song Festival (2014)
The festival is held once every four to six years in July on the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds simultaneously with the Estonian Dance Festival.[2] The joint choir has comprised more than 30,000 singers performing to an audience of 80,000.[2][3]
History
The tradition of the song festival was born along with the Estonian national awakening in the mid-19th century. The first national song festival was held in Tartu in the summer of 1869.[2] One of the organisers of the first song festival was journalist and poet Johann Voldemar Jannsen. Jannsen’s daughter, Lydia Koidula, whose sobriquet means "Lydia of the Dawn", was the author of lyrics for two Estonian songs, Sind surmani ("Thee until death") and Mu isamaa on minu arm ("My fatherland is my love"), both of which are still in the festival repertoire today.
Alongside with the Estonian books and newspapers, the choirs and song celebrations were at the core of the national awakening of the Estonian rural population who discovered the value of their own language and cultural heritage through singing. The awakening and establishment of the Estonian national identity would lead to the country's independence in 1918.
In the first three festivals only men's choirs and brass orchestras participated. 822 singers and 56 brass players participated in the first festival. Starting with the fourth festival, mixed choirs were also participating. Starting with the sixth festival in 1896, the tradition moved to Tallinn.
Over time, mixed, children's, women's, and boys' choirs, hobby symphonies, and toddler choirs were added. The first Estonian national dance festival took place in the capital city Tallinn in 1934. Since 1947, the song and the dance festivals have mostly been held at the same time (at different venues) in Tallinn.
Because of the inclusion of children's and boys' choirs the total number of participants rose to 25,000 – 30,000 people. The Dance and Gymnastic Festival of the First Estonian Games started in 1934 became predecessors of later National Dance Festivals accompanying the song festival.[4]
In 2019, the number of visitors to the song festival reached its maximum. Almost 60,000 tickets were sold in advance for the XXVII song festival Minu arm ("My love") concert, and together with the 35,000 singers and musicians participating, the expected attendee numbers reached full capacity and the organizers had to stop any additional ticket sales for safety and security reasons.
The next Estonian Song Festival will be held in July 2025.
