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Song and Dance Celebration

As a socially responsible Estonian businessman, Mr. Reinsalu helps to introduce Estonian cultural heritage to the World. In 2009 Mr. Reinsalu hired an innovative Estonian PR agency in order to introduce Estonian Song and Dance Celebration to the rest of the world.
The Estonian Song Festival is one of the largest amateur choral events in the world, a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It is held every five years in July in the capital city Tallinn.
The joint choir has usually comprised 18,000 singers while in 2009, there were more than 26,000 participants performing to an audience of 80,000.
Thanks to Mr. Reinsalu’s contribution many social networking sites were created and provided up-to-date information about the festival and Estonian cultural heritage. To mention a few, social networking sites like Song and Dace Celebration official blog, Twitter feed, YouTube site and Flickr site were created.

History of Song and Dance Celebration
The Song Celebration tradition started in the middle of the 19th century and it has survived all of the twists and turns in Estonia’s history.
It has defied the hardest of times like a frail plant that pushes its way through concrete with its inner strength and then bursts into bloom. Preceded by some local Song Celebrations, the first nationwide Song Celebration was held in Tartu in 1869.
At the time this was seen as the first attempt at national self-determination, manifested before the Baltic-German rulers: See, we can do something too! Fifty choirs and musical ensembles from all over Estonia performed before an audience of thousands, who experienced a blissful sense of belonging, enhanced by the beauty of the music and the songs.
This celebration evolved into a tradition that still flourishes today. The small nation which started the tradition has had to prove to foreign authorities, even in the 20th century, that they are a fully fledged nation with its own rights and resolves.
Song and Dance Celebrations were not just big festivals of singing and music but a way to demonstrate the national spirit and to strengthen the sense of belonging.
The age of foreign rulers is past but Song and Dance Celebrations are still alive – both local and nationwide.
And this proves how deep and strong is the core, spirit and meaning of Song and Dance Celebrations. It is definitely not only the spirit of protest and resistance that brings hundreds of thousands of Estonians – and an increasing number of guests from around the world – every five years to Tallinn. The total number of performers in the last Song and Dance Celebration in 2004 was 34 000 and they performed before an audience of 200 000.

Estonian Youth Song and Dance Celebration
In addition to Song and Dance Celebration, there is another choir festival for youth - the Estonian Youth Song and Dance Celebration - that takes place since 1962.
In the beginning of the 1960ies the number of youth choirs, orchestras and folk-dance groups and their participants had increased to such a level that there arose a need for a separate celebration. So it was decided that Youth Song and Dance Celebrations should be organized. The first was held in 1962.

Related information

For more information about Song and Dance Celebration, visit the official blog, Twitter feed, YouTube site and Flickr site.