This summer in Latvia will be held the VIII International Folk Dance Festival ‘Sudmaliņas’

From July 2 to July 7, 2016 in Rīga, Jūrmala, Jelgava and Pilsrundāle there will be held the VIII International Folk Dance Festival - Contest ‘Sudmaliņas’.

The festival will be multiform – concerts in outdoor and indoor concert venues, charity concerts in nursing homes and rehabilitation centres, festive procession of the participants, as well as dance evenings. For the first time in the history of the festival there is planned a dance ensemble contest that will be judged by an international jury.

There will be dance groups from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, China, Latvia, Poland and Turkey participating in the festival. Festival guests – Latvian ensembles Dancis, Gatve, Līgo, Rotaļa and Teiksma.

The International Folk Dance Festival ‘Sudmaliņas’ is the most ambitious festival in the field of scenic dance in Latvia. It aims at bringing together dancers from Latvia and from different countries of the world, who get to know, creatively explore and inherit folk dance traditions.

The Latvian National Centre for Culture has been organising festivals ‘Sudmaliņas’ since 1992. The author of the idea of this festival is the Honorary Artistic Director of the Dance festivals, choreographer Ingrīda Edīte Saulīte. During the years of its existence (1992, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2009), the festival has become a stable tradition and has gained high praise from our foreign guests, Latvian dancers, the audience and critics. In the seven previous festivals, 114 Latvian dance groups and 93 dance groups from 43 other countries have taken part.