Marika’s Day Concert “What’s New?”
Organising the Marika’s Day concert in cooperation with the Smiltene Municipality Culture Centre at the Marika Svīķe Cultural Space in Smiltene Old Park has become an annual tradition for the association “Smiltenei un Latvijai”. This year, it will take place on 19 July at 3:00 p.m., and its title and motto is “What’s New?”
When meeting friends and acquaintances at the Smiltene Town Festival, in the streets or at events, we often ask one another: “What’s new?” How have you changed? How the town around us has changed? Have there been any inspiring events, or is there any news to share?
The organisers of the Vītols Festival in Gaujiena sometimes joke that Jāzeps Vītols will not be writing anything new anymore. Sadly, Marika Svīķe will no longer write new poems either. However, this year we do have something new — Marika’s relatives have handed over previously unpublished poetry notebooks to Zaiga, the association’s archivist, offering an opportunity to discover yet-unexplored pages of her creative work.
Therefore, at this year’s concert, we will be able to delight and surprise poetry lovers with works that have not been heard before and are less widely known. There will be new poems, as well as a new song with lyrics by Marika Svīķe.
The concert will feature Jānis Krūmiņš, Jānis Žagariņš, the ensemble “Iedvesma”, Dace Purvlīce, Renārs Rainers Biezbārdis, the Latvian Forest Workers’ Male Choir “Silvicola”, the band “Pusnakts brigāde”, as well as the Smiltene Municipality Culture Centre’s mixed choirs “Mežābele” and “Pakalni”.
This year, during the concert, we will be collecting donations for editing and preparing Marika’s unpublished poems for publication, so that her literary legacy can become accessible to a wider readership, as well as for improving the cultural space.
As usual, the concert will take place in the spirit of a musical picnic, so we invite you to bring blankets and folding chairs to enjoy the concert in comfort.
See you on 19 July at 3:00 p.m. at the Marika Svīķe Cultural Space in Smiltene Old Park!
Written by: Aija Kramiņa, Association “Smiltenei un Latvijai”
