News

Book about Tartu County song festivals out from the printing house

Press statement 25.05.2009

This summer marks 140 years from the first Estonian General Song Festival.
Tartu, the birthtown of song festivals, celebrates this with their own song festival on 13 June. An album of the area's song festivals titled „Who Has Songs to Sing – 140 Years of Song Festivals in Tartu County“ will be published for the occasion, written by Juhani Püttsepp, designed  by Maarja Roosi, with photographs by Margus Ansu.
144 pages bound in beautiful buckram include song festival stories, archive materials and pictures. Conductors and singers of Tartu County choirs, as well as folk dancers and wind band players have shared memories and thoughts. The book includes a short summary in English.
Estonia's oldest conductor Aadu Regi says in the book: „Song festivals will always persist, they've rooted as a tradition. Be it however hard, the hardships will not matter – song and play are here to stay.“
In a big part, the book was published with support from the City of Tartu, Foundation for Tartu Song and Dance Festivals and donations.
The book can be bought at Tartu Song Festival, from the University of Tartu's bookshop and from Apollo and Rahva Raamat chains.