Latvians share stories of chance encounters with celebrities

Social media users in Latvia are sharing memories of chance meetings with famous people on the Threads platform. The discussion was started by a user named Marta, who wrote that she had passed musician Ainars Mielavs on the road near the Alfa shopping centre and recalled once overtaking musician Intars Busulis on the Vidzeme highway. She asked others to tell their most interesting stories.

The comments quickly filled with experiences. Laura recalled that as she was leaving a café car park on the Riga–Liepāja road, a song by Zigfrīds Muktupāvels came on the radio just as the musician himself drove into the car park. Līga said she once told Elmārs Tanne something that she only understood a moment later.

In traffic and everyday life

Ieva wrote that she nearly hit Edgars Levits with her bicycle only a couple of days before he became President of Latvia. Another user remembered an early morning when the Cūkmens character, in costume and in his special car, slowly drove behind them; they waved to each other, and the person smiled all day afterwards. Daira said that about 17 years ago Intars Busulis almost ran her over in Riga by driving through a red light.

One commenter wrote that while living in Ziepniekkalns, he rode the trolleybus to the city centre in the mornings together with Armands Simsons.

Warmer encounters

Nadježda recalled serving Ieva Kerēvica and said she received cake from Aija Andrejeva at her name-day concert in the Tallinas kvartāls area and got a photo with her. A woman from Liepāja said she often runs into Renārs Kaupers in the seaside park, the market and cafés. Ilze remembered a childhood trip in the late 1990s, when she met poet Imants Ziedonis and his wife Ausma Ziedonis-Kantāne in a dining room in Aknīste.

Liene said she flew to Lisbon on the same plane as Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs and met him again a few days later near a cathedral. Randa noted that she meets the president in Old Riga on her way to work so often that she has considered greeting him.