This song festival celebrated the passing of one hundred years from the first song festival. The festivities started two weeks earlier in Tartu – the cradle of song festivals, where all male and boys' choirs of Estonia gathered alongside brass orchestras. The song festival fire was also lit in Tartu and then carried all through Estonia within two weeks, after which it found its place in the song festival fire tower in Tallinn on 28 June. The repertoire of the song festival offered a selection of songs performed at previous festivals and the singing competition of choirs that had been abandoned earlier (in 1896) was brought back into the programme.

CHIEF CONDUCTORS:

Gustav Ernesaks, Jüri Variste, Arvo Ratassepp, Heino Kaljuste, Uno Järvela, Neeme Järvi, Heino Rannap, Tuudur Vettik, Lembit Verlin, Richard Ritsing, Roland Laasmäe, Heino Kaljuste, John Tungal, Leopold Vigla, Helmut Orusaar.

771 choirs and orchestras with 30,230 singers-musicians took part in the festival.