“This is an extraordinary year. We are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the nation’s greatest, jointly created cultural masterpiece – the Nationwide Latvian Song and Dance Festival. It is a tradition that has stood the test of time, a tradition that is firmly unique in the world, unites national values, and is an integral part of our national identity”

Uldis Biķis, Chairman of the Board of Latvijas Finieris.

“Just as culture shapes the soul of a nation, Latvia’s national economy is rooted in our fertile land and the people who nurture it and generate value in their daily lives. That’s why the support our team offers the festival is so significant – birch plywood products grown on our own land and made together. We at Latvijas Finieris are doubly proud – many of our employees will be participating in the festival in various ensembles, and this year our company is also looking back at over a century and a half of history.”

Uldis Biķis, Chairman of the Board of Latvijas Finieris.

“Song and Dance Festivals don’t happen on their own – they are crafted by participants, local authorities, the state and businesses. We can rightly call this the biggest collaborative project in our country and a source of pride for us, in which we experience such memorable emotions, a sense of togetherness and the might of coming and working together. The support of Latvijas Finieris also demonstrates a responsible and economical approach to our high-quality resources and products. This is very important for us this time, because sustainability is one of the Festival’s guiding principles, which permeates both the organisational and the artistic processes. We are sincerely grateful to everyone who supports the Festival individually and at the corporate level.”

Daina Markova, Executive Director of the XXVII Nationwide Latvian Song and XVII Dance Festival.

During the festival week, Latvijas Finieris’ birch plywood products will be on display at the event honouring Chief Conductors and Chief Dance Leaders, the Festival Participants’ Parade, the construction of the Green Stage on the Esplanade, the Latvian folk costume exhibition “In the Moonlight” (“Mēnesnīcā”), the children’s and youth choir concert “I Want to Tell Myself Something” (“Es vēlos sev ko pastāstīt”), the kokle concert “River of Time” (“Laika upe”), the applied folk art exhibition, the dance performance “The Eternal Engine” (“Mūžīgais dzinējs”) at Daugava Stadium, as well as the concert of minority artistic groups “Suns on Canvas of Song” (“Saules dziesmu audeklā”).

The company has also provided considerable financial support to the upcoming feature film “The Land that Sings” (“Zeme, kas dzied”) by director Māris Martinsons, which tells the origin story of the Song Festival tradition. It should also be noted that Latvijas Finieris has donated the free tickets to various concerts it received (68 in total) to SOS Children’s Villages Latvia, enabling at least some children who have been left without parental care to experience Latvia’s most important cultural event in person. Overall, this year Latvijas Finieris’ contribution to the Song and Dance Festival and the immortalisation of its history has exceeded EUR 100 000.

See you at the festival, where the dancers’ steps and the choir of a thousand voices will resonate in the acoustic panels of the Silver Grove stage at Mežaparks, which are also made of birch plywood manufactured by Latvijas Finieris!