In 2013, I visited Riga for the Latvian Song and Dance Festival and became a big fan of this event. Every five years, Latvians all over the world come together for a weeklong celebration of their beloved folksongs and dances. The festival also embodies a spirit of solidarity among a people who survived a tumultuous and tragic history of foreign occupation.
My late father and his sister were Latvian WWII refugees who emigrated to California and Ontario, respectively. I never learned the Latvian language and am left to wonder what it would have been like to attend the festival with them, to benefit from their insights and translation. The Canadian version of the Latvian Song and Dance Festival is closer to home, so I made plans to attend.
My husband and I started our road trip to Toronto on July 4, making stops in Western New York on the way up and back. We had great accommodations, dining experiences, and sightseeing adventures. First stop, Keuka Lake. We stayed the night in this Airbnb cottage, clean and comfortable with beautiful surroundings. Our host was friendly and helpful.
Highlights: walks along the wooded lake’s edge, a visit to historic and beautiful Garrett Memorial Chapel, the best ice cream in New York at Seneca Farms in Penn Yan, and a perfect view of Independence Day fireworks all around the lake’s edge.
Garrett Memorial Chapel
Midday on the 5th, we left Keuka Lake and stopped in Naples, NY, for lunch at the Old School Café. Had a delicious meal, sitting outside under the trees with good shade from the hot day.
Then we hopped in the car for Toronto. Not much delay at the U.S./Canada border (Peace Bridge). On the Canada side, we zipped along for a while before the traffic on the QEW got horrendous. The last 50 miles to Toronto took forever. Friday rush hour? Or is it always like that? We got to our hotel at about 7 p.m. Hotel X.
A good choice. We explored two rooftop lounges with great views of the city and had a scrumptious dinner at the hotel restaurant, Roses Social. Our large, comfortable room presented only one challenge—how to work those strangely unique light switches? Took us a while to figure them out. The best feature was the high-impact water pressure in the shower.
Saturday, July 6, was a busy day. In the morning, I took Johanna Bergfelt’s contemporary dance class at the National Ballet of Canada. I’d “known” Johanna virtually for nearly four years, taking her online classes at home, so it was a delight to meet her in person and to dance her wonderful choreography in a huge studio.
Next, hubby and I had brunch at Fox on John. We bypassed the outdoor seating only because a flash rainstorm hit. Inside, we had mimosas, omelets, and fixings while watching a Euro 2024 soccer match between England and Switzerland. A lot of energy in the room!
Then, on to the Latvian Mass Choir Concert at Roy Thomson Hall. The President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, gave opening remarks. The stage was filled to capacity with singers, overflowing into the upper audience boxes on either side (this photo doesn’t quite capture all the singers on the sides). About 700 or 800, everyone in national costume. They performed dozens of folksongs in beautiful harmony, each with its own conductor.
My videos of the songs didn’t turn out so great, so here are links to a few good ones posted on YouTube by other attendees: Lec Saulīte (Sun Rises) and Saule Pērkons Daugava (Sun, Thunder, Daugava [River]).
The concert ended with Pūt Vējiņi (Blow Winds), the song that closes every festival, with the audience singing and swaying along. Here is a video of Pūt Vējiņi at the 2023 Riga concert (40,000 singers in a huge amphitheater!)
Sunday morning the 7th we took the ferry to Toronto Islands, getting this view of the city skyline on the way there. A low flying airplane went directly overhead, coming in for a landing at the nearby Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
The several small islands are connected, making a large park with plenty of trees and white sand beaches on Lake Ontario. We started out on the westernmost island and walked for about an hour to the center island, where we caught the ferry back.
About halfway through our walk, a loud din caught our attention across an inlet to a small interior island. Hundreds of birds were circling or perched on denuded trees, squawking like crazy. Think Hitchcock’s The Birds. A man who had docked his boat nearby told us that the cormorant population is out-of-control, damaging the trees and environment. We were lucky the wind was blowing away from us, he said, because the noxious odor of their guano is overpowering.
Back in town, we found a great place for lunch a few blocks from the venue where the next festival event was to be held. We had delicious burgers and cold beer sitting in this outdoor patio at Pogue Mahone Pub & Kitchen.
Then it was on to the Latvian Folk Dance Spectacle at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, home of the Maple Leafs ice hockey team! No ice that day. 800 dancers of all ages filled the entire arena with joy and spirit, making intricate patterns with their dances. I made a short video from a few clips of different dances you can see here (Instagram).
Here’s a fuller recap on YouTube. At :45 seconds in, you will see a song near the end of the concert called Daugav’ Abas Malas (Both Sides of the Daugava River), where we all crossed our arms and held hands and sang along. (I’m in that audience somewhere!) Some of the lyrics translate as: “One language, one soul, one land that is ours.” And here is a video of the dance finale.
My favorite dance was by a group that won first place in the new choreography contest. I got most of it on my iPhone and posted it here, on YouTube. Really beautiful and fun!
The performance ended at about 6:30 p.m. and we headed back to New York. Again, the traffic was bad. The Google maps lady sent us to the Lewiston crossing, claimed to be “the best possible route.” We waited in line almost an hour before a customs agent waved us through. On the U.S. side, the highway is a lot prettier than the highway we took going north, through Buffalo.
We didn’t get to our hotel until about 11 p.m., a really nice place, the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel in Jamestown. It was built five years ago, everything spiffy clean and comfy.
In the morning, we visited with friends who took us on a tour of the Chautauqua Institution, a 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake that hosts summer residence programs in music, dance, theater, and fine arts, among others, and holds events open to the public year round. You may recall that this is where author Salman Rushdie was attacked in 2022. After that, security was tightened and we needed a grounds access pass. There are many beautiful privately owned homes that can be rented, a historic hotel, studios, theaters, and so much more.
Of most interest to me would be to take the dance classes taught by visiting teachers, or to watch performances by notable dance companies. Alas, that will have to be another visit! We were tuckered out from all the excitement and long drive, so made our way back home.
Thanks for riding along! In other news, pick up my award-winning collection Your Pick: Selected Stories during my summer sale. A mere 99 cents in e-book for another week!
