Gitanas NausÄ—da at the Estonian Song and Dance Festival: the Baltic spirit is unbreakable, united, and forever free

On Friday, President Gitanas Nausėda, together with Estonian President Alar Karis and Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, attended the Estonian XXVIII Song and XXI Dance Festival in Tallinn.

"The name of Estonia's festival this year-Iseoma, or Kinship-could not be more fitting. Because indeed, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are more than just neighbors. We are bound by history, by shared values and by a song of freedom that no one could silence," said the Lithuanian President.

According to Gitanas Nausėda, song and dance festivals have played a vital role in preserving our native languages, traditions, and national identity. "Let us remember that our traditions of song and dance were once the very tools of resistance-of what the world came to know as the Singing Revolution. Today, in freedom, we continue to sing and dance-not in protest, but in celebration. And so tonight, when the songs begin to rise into the Tallinn sky and feet move in rhythm across this historic stage, let the world see again what the Baltic spirit truly is: unbreakable, united, and forever free."

Estonia's song festivals hold the longest-standing tradition in the entire Baltic region-the first one was held in 1869 in the city of Tartu. The song and dance festival traditions of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.