Baltoscandal festival breaks attendance records in Rakvere

This year's Baltoscandal international performing arts festival in Rakvere set its highest attendance record in the past decade. Running from July 1 to 5, the event featured artists from 22 countries and hosted 264 events, including performances, installations and film screenings, most of which played to sell-out crowds. A total of 5,832 visitors from Estonia, across Europe and beyond attended — roughly a thousand more than in 2024.

Accommodation was in high demand. Festival director Velvo Väli noted that over the five days it was hard to find available lodging, and many festival-goers had to look for places to stay outside Rakvere. The city's restaurants and taxi services were also heavily used throughout the festival.

Artistic director Priit Raud stressed at the opening ceremony that in today's serious, angst-ridden and contradictory times, it is vital to come together to listen to and respect one another, not to fear the unknown, and to recognize how diverse yet surprisingly similar the world around us — and beyond us — really is.

One of the festival's highlights was "La Lettre" by Swiss director Milo Rau, one of Europe's most acclaimed theater directors and thinkers. This was the first opportunity for Estonian audiences to see one of his productions on home soil, and the director himself was in attendance. Another crowd-pleaser was London-based Estonian artist Julia Masli, who showcased her internationally acclaimed work "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha" to a home audience for the first time.

The world premiere of Estonian performance artists Liis Vares and Taavet Jansen's production "I've Been Talking Nonsense" also took place. It created a mixed-reality environment at the Ukuaru Music House, where audiences experienced the performance via virtual reality headsets.

Baltoscandal returns to Rakvere in 2028, marking its 20th edition, to be directed by Raud and Hedi-Liis Toome.