Issue 2004/2

The sea needs merriment

"This is our sea! We shall never give it away to anybody. This promise of ours must be grounded. May the Sea Day reminds everybody about that…" - announced the President of Lithuania Antanas Smetona finishing addressing to the nation on the occasion of opening the first Sea Day in August of 1934

After a long span of the Baltic coast time belongs to us again. From now on the Lithuanian people will find their home near the sea, and the Rambynas mountain begirded by the Nemunas, will become an eternal junction, tying the Great Lithuania with the sea-coast. So let us celebrate the Sea Festival, honour those who perished fighting for it, let it become the day of all countrymen's love to the sea!" - Martynas Jankus, the patriarch of Lithuania Minor, said during the opening ceremony of the first Sea Festival.

… before 1934…

"The period after January 15, 1923 when the sword opened the way to the sea for the Lithuanian nation, was a period of passionate ruling and preparation . It was a period of consolidating our powers on the regained seacoast, enlarging and developing the port and directing our foreign trade to sea routes. Now the time came to start an effective use of the sea for the benefit of our nation and the state. May August 12, 1934 become the starting point of this new period!"

... August 11-12, 1934 …

"A number of years have passed since the memorable day when a small group of heroes shed their blood in the Baltic Sea liberating our only port <…> today the finest youths of Lithuania have gathered here in crowds from all our motherland to demonstrate to what mighty power the small family of heroes has grown, to pay tribute to those who perished in liberating our sea, to swear their faithfulness to it and to accept the noble obligation to maintain the heritage won back through the blood of those giants of spirit, to use that sacred heritage in a proper way and save it for future generations."
The first Sea Day will start with a ceremony of honouring the perished liberators of the sea. At 5 p.m. a wreath for the perished will be let down in the sea. Public organizations are invited to gather at the jetty. After the ceremony, at 7 p.m. everybody will go to the cemetery where a religious service will be held. At 8 p.m. all the participants of the festival will march through the town with torches, live pictures, etc. At 10-12 p.m. a water carnival ( sailing on illuminated ships, songs, music, fireworks and other amusements on the water) will be held in the port at Smiltyne. At 11 p.m. a welcoming party organized by Klaipeda rifle regiment will start in Riflemen's House. Concert of riflemen's choir and dances will continue until 5 in the morning.
At 9-10 o'clock on the second day of the festival services will be held in all the churches of the town.
At 10 o'clock the President of the state Antanas Smetona will be welcomed at the Gate of Honour erected for that occasion. The President will open the Sea Day.
At 11-12 o'clock honourable guests will deliver speeches followed by a parade at noon. Participants of the parade are the Klaipeda garrison and all organizations having flags under the management of commander of the garrison colonel Lanskoronskis. During the break from 2 to 3 p.m. the citizens can visit the seacoast. At 3 p.m. - a water parade and water sports in Smiltyne followed by a fishermen's sail ships regatta from 4 to 6 p.m. During the regatta orchestras will be playing and choirs singing on the shore. After 6 p.m. participants of the festival can take a tour in the sea and the lagoon on ships, fishermen's sail boats and motorboats. At 7 p.m. Aukuras festivity starts in Smiltyne with a concert of the symphony orchestra, single and united choirs. A moonlight tour in the sea on the vessel Kurishes Haff at 9-12 p.m. The price of the ticket - 1 litas per person.

…1936…

Last year the Sea Day attracted lots of active citizens. It shows that Lithuanians are starting to realize the importance of our sacred seashore. However, the festive day caused some problems as well. Large crowds of people, shortage of lodging places, throng at the busses, trampled down lawns. This year we will show to the world that we know how to organize a festival, an academic Sea Day initiated by students of all Lithuanian higher schools. Young people in organized groups will visit the seacoast at appointed times, will participate in various brainstorms, visit the museums. There will be no chaotic crowds any more. In the evening, when the festival is over, about 1500 students will make an oath to the sea on the jetty.

Keep order

Klaipeda riflemen will take care of public order.
The audience is asked to avoid walking on the lawns and breaking the trees.
Smoking in the forest is strictly forbidden. Violation of this rule will incur big fines or imprisonment.
Access to the sea is allowed only by existing roads and paths. Walking, sitting or lying in the dunes is strictly forbidden.
Obey to excursion guides, public supervisor and policemen. Don't argue with them. Fulfill their orders instantly.
Be punctual always and everywhere. Come on time to common festivities and parades.
Be polite, don't jostle in the crowd but keep to the queue and don't disturb the order.
Don't take reproofs as an offence but accept them as a request. Remember, that other people also have equal rights.
You have come to Klaipeda to celebrate the Sea Day so take part in all the festivities.
Do not contradict the instructions of excursion guides and public supervisors.
Be orderly and neat in the common lodgings and do not disturb anybody's rest. Be satisfied with the places indicated to you by public supervisors of the festival.

… July 18-20, 1963 till …

For a long time we could not pay tribute to our precious seacoast. But through all these years we have carried in our hearts the love to our native sea. This year seamen of the Baltic Navy Fleet are organizing the first Sea Festival after that turbulent period for our country. Seamen of the Baltic Navy Fleet from Kaliningrad will give concerts and organize sports competitions on Zalgiris stadium. Submarines will demonstrate powerful marine equipment in the Curonian Lagoon, torpedoes will be launched and a rowing competition organized.
A carnival will take place on the Dane River and in the Curonian Lagoon. Neptune with his heralds will ride though the town inviting citizens to join the merriment. From now on such festivities will take place every year for 70 years in turn.

…July 23-25, 2004

Owing to Sea Festival Klaipeda becomes not only the event of massive Lithuanian merriment, but also a fiesta of an international level. We are the only port of state of Lithuania - Lithuania's gate to the maritime world, so with a proper responsibility we must represent the name of both Klaipeda and Lithuania.
I love my city and will do everything that the name of Klaipeda would be pronounced in everyone's lips with respect.
(Rimantas Taraskevicius, Mayor of Klaipeda city)

Descent of Modern Art at Klaipeda Sea Festival

Jolita Kraniauskaite

On July 23-25 Klaipeda invites to a traditional Sea Festival again. 70 years have passed since this event was born.
During the days of the jubilee festival many surprises await Klaipedians and city guests. One of them - the festival of modern art SEAS, called by organizers art adventure of the countries near the Baltic and Adriatic Seas.

How were SEAS born?

The name of the festival is symbolic, namely seas united artists from 13 countries.
In 2002 pairs of artists met in different port cities of the Baltic and Adriatic countries in order to make spaces of unknown cities speak and start a creative dialogue.
In many European countries port cities experience the most dramatic historic changes. Empty buildings of factories and rusting equipment tell about former larger industry centers. What purpose for should be these territories, could arts settle in them - this was an implication of the initiated project Seas.
The axis of the project "North-West" is one more attempt to change an inveterate and already bored European "East-West" dimension. Yes, we all live in Europe. But what is it like? Many projects demonstrated during Seas festivals are artists' answer to these and other questions.
Seas festival, which starts on June 22 in Klaipeda, during 4 days will present seven projects. Later Svetlogorsk, Liepaja, Riga, and Gdansk will meet the participants of the festival. Having added still new projects, Seas will continue its tour next summer to port cities of Adriatic Sea.

Teramin - what is it?

One of the most intriguing projects is the performance Teramin by a famous Danish director Kirsten Dehlholm based on the life story of the Russian scientist Lev Teramin (1869-1993).
In 1920 as a student of St. Petersburg university, he invented a musical instrument, which diffuse sounds in the spectrum of 3-4 octaves reacting to person's warmth, depending on the distance between the hand and the antenna. Vladimir Lenin was fascinated by this instrument and believed that it should appear at every citizen's house and substitute a piano.
In 1927 Teramin prepared for a concert tour across Europe. In Frankfurt, Berlin, London, and Paris the audience was literally stunned by this electronic miracle and the fact, that it was possible to spread sounds of music simply waving a hand in the air. In Paris opera they had to call the police in order to calm the agitated crowd during the concert.
After a successful performance in Europe the scientist moved to New York, opened his company and began a massive production of teramins. However, before World War II nostalgia calls him back to Russia. Soon after the return he was charged with anti-soviet activities and sent to gulag in Siberia. After the war he was released under the condition to work for KGB. There he made improvements to listening apparatus for espionage. After the retirement, he works as a professor in Moscow Music Academy. In his free time he still tries to make improvements to electronic music.
In the performance of a Danish director, which is a kind of reflection of the whole 20th century, a reflection of the past century through the history of one person and the whole development of electronic music, one can see six real teramins delivered specially from the U.S. The music spread by them is really very unusual.
Teramin is technically a very complex performance. A platform illuminated by 100 luminescensic tubes will be specially delivered to Klaipeda.

And even more art

During the festival a strong Lithuanian wave will be felt, too. A director Gintaras Varnas will present a performance Devastated Country, based on one the longest the 20th century plays called Merlin by a German dramatist Tankred Dorst. The revived estate of the king Arthur and the round table of knights is a symbolic interpretation of 30-40 year-old actors' generation of the last decade events in Lithuania. How the utopia was born and what it has grown to.
Not less interesting will be the performance Deleted Messages presented by Croatians, where the audience should feel like in an original quarantine, imprisoned among white nylon sheets that symbolize computer monitors.
Slovenian choreographs are determined to make a present of a dance performance, which was born on the basis of Italian melodies in Bari port. In the opinion of the author, the ships passing by would be the best decoration to them.
A Swede Mikael Lundberg and Davide Grassi of Italian origin arrived to Klaipeda from Slovenia already in April. They were looking around our city, filmed the places and people who attracted their eye trying to "purify" the spirit of the city. The material assembled by them should become part of the audio-video installation The Baltic Sea. In one of the neglected buildings of Klaipeda ship-repair yard a gallery will be arranged, a visitor got to which will feel as if sailing in the Baltic Sea. From one side artistic interpretations of the port cities of the western coast will flicker, from the other - those of the east coast. The little visitors of SEAS festival will have what do to, too. Skart group of designers from Serbia and Montenegro (by the way, they are the authors or the festival logo) will open children creative workshop Popular Mechanics, in which simple things of the laboratory of children's fantasy will acquire unbelievable purposes...
These exclusive artistic events will become a great alternative to mass culture.

The Sea Festival’ 2004
Back to Klaipeda
Program (the main events)

July 21, Wednesday

July 23, Friday

July 24, Saturday

July 25, Sunday