Culture can finally take place and celebrate again: This is also the case in Kaunas, Lithuania, one of the European Capitals of Culture 2022.
Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania, continued its program as European Capital of Culture 2022 with a series of events. More than 60 events took place over the weekend in the former capital of the Baltic EU country during the second part of the “Myth of Kaunas” trilogy entitled “The Confluence”.
According to the organizers, estimated hundreds of thousands of people interested in culture and art came to the numerous performances, in which over 1000 singers, acrobats and actors took part, on Monday despite the partly rainy weather.
The main attraction was a lavishly designed open-air show with light effects and lots of music on Saturday evening, which was performed on the water at the confluence of the two rivers Neris and Nemunas. The Ukrainian singer Jamala – winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 – also performed. Several street festivals, music concerts and exhibitions also took place from Friday to Sunday.
The motto of the European Capital of Culture year in Kaunas is “From temporary to contemporary”. In total, more than 40 festivals, 60 exhibitions and over 250 performing arts events and concerts are to take place. The core of the program is the trilogy “Myth of Kaunas”, which takes place over three weekends. This is intended to create a new connecting and identity-forming legend for the city of 300,000 inhabitants.
In addition to Kaunas, Novi Sad in Serbia and Esch in Luxembourg also hold the title of European Capital of Culture in 2022. (dpa)