The 150th anniversary of the Estonian Song and Dance Celebration

Objective

2019 marked the 150th anniversary of the Estonian Song Festival and the Dance Celebration took place for the 20th time as well. Research shows that 98% of Estonians consider the celebration a crucial part of our tradition, however, different age groups value different aspects of it. Our goal was to prove that participation still has a symbolic value or emotions to offer and to find ways to involve the different target groups.

Insight

The annual celebration is Estonia’s biggest public event with approximately 50 000 participants. Naturally, such a large event requires extensive communications not only targeting participants and the audience, but the people affected by temporary traffic changes in Tallinn as well.

Creative

A mixture of channels was used for communications: national and local media outlets, social media, online newsletters, and various media events. From the beginning of 2019, a new topic was introduced each month leading up to the festival. Each topic was introduced to all target groups through focused integrated campaigns and channels.

Success

The anniversary celebrations broke previous records and set new standards:

  • A record number of people visiting Tallinn with over 100 000 people attending the festival.
  • More than 500 000 people watching the live broadcasting.
  • For the first time, the 7-hour-long Song Celebration was broadcasted by the international news agency Associated Press.

For more information, please contact

Carl-Ruuben Soolep
carl.ruuben-soolep(at)miltton.com