A visit to Riga

8th World Choir Games venues

During the last week (May 8 to 10) INTERKULTUR representatives visited Riga, Latvia. The country’s capital, European Capital of Culture 2014, will be host city of the 8th World Choir Games (WCG) in two years’ time. The contract signing was in February, watch a video featuring some impressions here.

Last week’s meetings focused on visiting different venues as well as talking about artistic details, for example the general schedule of the two-week competition.

The tour of inspection started with the large choral arena in Mežaparks. Its Grand Stage has room for 12 000 choir singers – room for a really big festival choir – and accommodates also a big audience. Altogether 26 000 people can gather and listen to the performances here. Every five years the choir arena in Mežaparks hosts the famous Latvian Song and Dance Festival.

Moreover, the tour led visitors to Arena Riga, to different churches, for example St. Petri, Riga Cathedral and St. Johannes Church in the old town, but also to several halls in the Academy of Music and in the University. “The decision on  specific venues for competitions and main events has not been finally made yet”, says Ralf Eisenbeiß, one of INTERKULTUR’s Artistic Directors. “There are excellent places and we will choose the best of them for the World Choir Games in collaboration with our partners!”

The 8th World Choir Games take place from July 9 to 19, 2014 in Riga, Latvia. They will be of high significance as being part of the cultural capital year 2014.