The City of Vilnius celebrates its 700th anniversary next year – in 2023. In preparation for the jubilee year, the city is already holding various festivals. Numerous large and small venues will be brimming with music, dance, theatre and other creative activities, which is not unusual for Vilnius, but there will be even more special events to kick off the occasion.
An international dance festival, the largest in the Baltic countries, is called New Baltic Dance (Naujasis Baltijos šokis) and continues until May 25. On May 7 and 8, Cathedral Square hosts the performance of Forest (Miškas), by a group of artists from Brazil, Portugal and Slovenia, expressing the desire to grow roots in the city, and portraying the instability of the body, of nature, climate and collective practices. The artists invited bystanders to join them instanding on their heads to illustrate a different type of forest…
Other events include the famous French artist Yoann Bourgeois’ installation of machines and apparatus to express the relationship between space and time, and – an attempt to control time (May 23-25 at the “Dūmų fabrikas”). On June 15 and 16, “700 minutes of music” will be performed over two days on four stages in four suburbs of Vilnius with 24 performers. Midsummer Vilnius 2022 will be held in the Palace of the Grand Dukes courtyard from July 11-22. Other music events include “Kristupo festivalis”, named for the patron saint of Vilnius, St. Christopher – which is on from July 11 to September 20. A celebratory Mass will be held at St. Casimir’s church on July 24. An international circus festival “Helium” will entertain visitors from September 7-15, and “Loftas Fest” (September 9-11), will include the Vilnius 700 Block Party on September 10.
Special theatre performances at the Vilnius International Theatre Festival “Sirens” await visitors from September 21 to October 9, with shows by the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre and interesting performance lectures by creative groups “Rimini Protokoll“ from Germany and Swiss theatre “Vidy“. Fascinating information on other events and aspects of Vilnius is available on www.700vilnius.lt.
