Laura Võigemast, the Dramaturgist of the Tartu 2024 Summer Celebration: things must happen through merriment, not by working until your nose bleeds
The European Capital of Culture will replace the highway of Tartu downtown with a summer celebration where some of the most well-known Estonian artists will perform. The audience will be able to sing along as well-known Estonian melodies create an air of nostalgia. The event will be drawn to a close by Winny Puhh, dubbed the weirdest band in the world. The Summer Celebration is free of charge.
The Tartu 2024 Summer Celebration will begin with the concert performance “Arts of Survival at the Crossroads” by Laura Võigemast and Tanel Jonas, which brings to the audience the tale of Tartu. Through a humorous angle, well-known Estonian songs about the arts of survival open up the journey of how Tartu and Southern Estonia became the European Capital of Culture. On stage will be Märt Avandi, Ott Sepp, Ollie, Peeter Volkonski, Sissi, Liisi Koikson, Nele-Liis Vaiksoo, Heidy Tamme and others. The lyrics can be found on the Tartu 2024 website, so everybody will have the chance to sing along.
Dramaturgist, actor, and director Laura Võigemast has created original verse for the concert performance “Arts of Survival at the Crossroads”. The texts paint a picture of the road that Tartu has travelled along history.
“For me, this story is first and foremost about the city of Tartu and how through challenges, fires, and conquests, but also joys and triumphs, the Capital of Culture has reached the present day,” said Võigemast. “As it says in the play: in the beginning there was nothing, there was no city of Tartu, but somewhere in the code the present moment was already sketched out, somewhere it was already predetermined.”
So the idea of a concert performance was also written into the algorithm of the universe. “Director Tanel Jonas had an original crossroads motif and he invited me to the production as a conversation partner, and then we started playing with the idea,” said Võigemast, explaining the background to the creative work. “I’m of the opinion that things that somehow turn out better in life are born primarily out of fun, not by working relentlessly.” The idea for the concert performance was later turned put into verse, a process which took place in several different cafes.
“Sometimes a text needs absolute silence in order to be born, but since the performance is about the story of the formation of people and a city, perhaps there was something in the it that needed a human environment in order to be born,” Võigemast mused. “I was sitting in a café, watching and listening to this human buzz, catching their thoughts on the fly.”
Võigemast is also connected to Tartu and its cafés, crossroads and encounters through university. Võigemast, who has lived in Tallinn and Viljandi for most of his life, was born in Tartu and has attended university here twice. “I was quite small when my mother studied biology at the University of Tartu, it was my first university experience,” she said. “I took my second university education in Tartu on my own.”
Music and encounters play a key role in the story, which was born in Tartu’s cafés. According to Võigemast, the various well-known artists in the concert performance form strange and unprecedented combinations. “I guess I’m most looking forward to the performance as a whole, to the jigsaw puzzle that will come together from all these pieces,” said Võigemast.
Actors Märt Avandi and Ott Sepp, a live band, the Tartu Academic Male Choir and four dance groups will also step on the stage and add their own whimsical touch to the performance: Shaté dance school, Janika Gymnastics Club, the Tartu group Leigarid and the dancers of the Tähtvere Dance Centre.
“In many ways, this is a completely new experience for me,” Võigemast said, describing the dramaturgy of the big event. She hopes that the performance will surprise people and inspire them to think outside the box. “If this performance awakens people from their everyday lives and gives them an emotional jolt, then it will have been a success. Hopefully it will sound like a wild party through time.”
The Tartu 2024 concert performance“Arts of Survival at the Crossroads” will take place on Saturday, August 3 at 22.00 on the big stage at the Car-Free Avenue in Tartu. The event will be broadcast live by Estonian Television. Delfi will broadcast the concert from the venue. The event will finish with a concert by the metal-punk band Winny Puhh.
Creative team of the concert performance “Arts of Survival at the Crossroads”:
Authors: Laura Võigemast and Tanel Jonas
Director: Tanel Jonas
Playwright: Laura Võigemast
Musical Director: Siim Aimla
Movement Director: Rauno Zubko
Video: Andre Kais ja Eva-Lotta Meinart
Lighting: Andre Petraudze
Band: Ahto Abner, Marvin Mitt, Indrek Mällo, Kirke Karja, Rahel Talts
Tartu 2024 Head Producer: Heigo Teder
Head Producer: Lauri Sokk
Technical Producer: Peeter Randväli
Stylist: Piret Sootla
Choreographers: Kadi Krikmann, Leaanika Parra, Elina Gorelašvili, Maarja Pruuli, Keitrin Lepaste, Kerstin Lõhmus, Kalver Kaseorg
Stage Manager: Aili Nohrin
Make-up Artist: Viktoria Rüster
On stage: Heidy Tamme, Peeter Volkonski, Nele-Liis Vaiksoo, Liisi Koikson, Priit Volmer, Märt Avandi, Ott Sepp, Rosanna Säälik, Ollie, Sissi, Tartu Academic Male Choir, Shaté Dance School, Janika Gymnastics Club, Leigarid Tartu Group, Tähtvere Dance Centre dancers