The director of the Latvian National Centre for Culture (LNKC) Dace Melbārde claims that 91.5% of the tickets to the 25th Latvian National Song Festival and the 15th National Dance Festival in the first week of July have already been sold.
According to her, people have chosen to attend the closing concert and the main dance event which points to people’s desire of coming and being together, and strengthening of national identity. However, none of the stadiums can hold as many people as to satisfy the demand. The stadium in Mežaparks has 20 000 seats whereas Daugava Stadium accounts for much less. The Stadium in Tallin, in comparison, can hold 100 000 people.
In 2018 the next Song and Dance Festival will take place and moreover, Latvia will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Therefore, Melbārde predicts an even higher demand within the next five years and encourages the responsible government institutions to consider the reconstruction of the stadiums so as to increase the number of seats.
The Minister of Culture Žaneta Jaunzeme-Grende claims that the Council of the Song and Dance Festival will urge the municipality of Riga and the government to start solving this issue as the reconstruction project of the stadium in Mežaparks has been created already five years ago. Moreover, she points out that the National Development Plan predicts the construction of a special Song and Dance Festival stadium by 2018.