Riga Jurmala Music Festival’s first weekend will welcome its visitors in less than a month

Riga Jurmala Music Festival’s first weekend will welcome its visitors in less than a month

One of the most anticipated summer destinations for classical music lovers, the Riga Jurmala Music Festival, returns in less than a month with the first weekend set to take place between July 16^th and 18^th in the Baltic beachside resort Jurmala.

The Riga Jurmala Music Festival will take place over four weekends from July 16th to September 5th, featuring four major orchestras – the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (John Eliot Gardiner conductor), the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov conductor), the Concertgebouworkest (Daniel Harding conductor) and the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra (Andris Nelsons conductor) – and twenty performances of world-renowned soloists such as pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Yefim Bronfman, Víkingur Ólafsson, Maria João Pires, András Schiff, Arcadi Volodos and Yuja Wang, as well as cellist Mischa Maisky and violinist Renaud Capuçon. The Riga Jurmala Music Festival will also present outstanding singers such as soprano Renée Fleming, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, and baritone Matthias Goerne. Concerts of the first three weekends in July and August will take place on the semi-open-air stage at the Dzintari Concert Hall in Jurmala, and the fourth weekend in the beginning of September will take place at the Latvian National Opera in Riga.

Following the government’s recent changes to restrictions for public events, indoor events are now limited to 300 people and outdoor events to 500 people (irrespective of the venue capacity) and all attendees must at a minimum present a recent negative COVID test. However, if organisers limit admission to ticketholders who prior to the event have been fully vaccinated for at least 14 days or have tested positive for COVID no more than 180 days ago, the government will exempt organisers from implementing all social distancing measures. Because of the fact that the orchestral concerts of the first weekend have sold well over 500 tickets each, the Riga Jurmala Music Festival has made the decision to apply to all concerts of the first weekend admission restrictions necessary to benefit from the exemption instead of the difficult alternative of turning away current ticketholders. Since the government may ease restrictions between now and the first weekend, the Festival has further decided to confirm the change on July 1^st and will advise all ticketholders at the time of the procedure to follow which will include showing a valid EU Digital COVID Certificate.

“We would have loved for our opening weekend to take place with as few restrictions as possible but, in order to avoid turning anyone away from the orchestra concerts, we had to make the difficult decision to apply admission conditions for those concerts only. All of our decisions are guided by prioritizing the health and safety of our audiences, artists and staff in accordance with government regulations. We are aware that the situation can evolve quickly and are ready to adapt and make the concerts available also to a mixed audience should further easing of restrictions by the local government allow us to do so,” explains Riga Jurmala Music Festival Executive Director Zane Culkstena.

• If you have any questions or concerns before the final decision on July 1st, please do not hesitate to contact the Riga Jurmala Music Festival by email at tickets@riga-jurmala.com

• More information on the Riga Jurmala Music Festival programme and ticket sales: riga-jurmala.com.

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