“I am very glad to go to Estonia and congratulate the Estonian nation personally,” the Lithuanian president said in a recording issued by the press service. “We are glad to take part in the celebrations with our neighbor, our friend, our partner, and I will try to do that and congratulate the Estonian nation in Estonian.”
Estonia marks in independence in February but the official celebrations have been timed to the Baltic students’ festival Gaudeamus, which this year will be hosted by Estonia’s second largest city Tartu.
At the festival’s opening ceremony, the Lithuanian president will deliver a congratulatory speech and later attend a concert of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian student choirs and folk groups, held to celebrate the centennial of Estonia’s independence. The festival will be also attended by the presidents of Finland, Latvia, Iceland and Georgia.
Gaudeamus is the biggest student festival in the Baltics, held since 1956. It will be held for the 18th time this year. The next Gaudeamus will take place in Lithuania in 2021.
This year, 53 choirs and folk ensembles from Lithuania will participate in the Gaudeamus festival. A special Lithuanian folklore concert, dedicated to Estonia’s centennial anniversary, will take place on June 23.