Wedding Musicians Festival in Bauska

We have just returned from Bauska, where we attended the Wedding Musicians Festival organised by Ilze's Events Agency. It took place at the Bauska Castle Hill outdoor stage, began yesterday 1 August at 16:00 and ended today 2 August somewhere around 2:00 or even later. I found out about this event by chance from a promotional mailing - or SPAM (you're not quite sure what to call it these days after the recent amendments to the Information Society Services Act) - and I must say it was a good thing, as it was a fine prompt for celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary.

Despite the relatively small attendance and number of participants, there was no shortage of songs, dances, beer, good spirits, or positive atmosphere. Sixteen wedding music groups took part in the festival: Tony and Bony from Riga; Pilnmēness from Jelgava; Sapņojums - Saldus; Versija - Bauska; Sounds good - Jelgava; Ķiršu ielas muzikanti - Bauska; Klaidoņi - Jelgava district; Ilze Vītola - Jelgava; Savējie - Birssgale parish, Ogre district; Sound chek - Riga; Bitīt' matos - Limbaži; Skolas ielas orķestris - Riga; Poļu nams - Riga; Laikā pirms... - Jelgava; Tequila Band - Riga district; Sievasmāte laukos - Riga district.

Predominantly, the good old songs from the repertoires of Kredo, Klaidoņi, Tranzīts, ABBA, Prāta Vētra, and many other beloved bands rang out. Of course, the liveliest were the Latgalian wedding polkas - when you dance them at a jump, your back gets soaked quickly. Some groups, such as Sound chek, also performed their own original compositions.

In the intervals, while the musicians tuned their instruments, the audience was entertained with various jokes on the themes of wedding and newlywed life. Although not all the wedding musicians were equally eloquent, they constantly addressed the crowd, invited people to dance, and warmed up the "wedding guests". In a word - hats off: Ilze Vītola (the event organiser) successfully gathered the wedding musicians, hosted the festival herself, and also performed several songs, accompanying herself on synthesiser.

The low turnout from the audience and vendors' side can be explained either by a lack of advertising (it seems only the cheapest or free sources were used) or by the so-called crisis, since the ticket price was not insignificant - Ls 4 per person. It seems the audience was predominantly from Bauska or the immediate surroundings. The vendors - one wood carver, one jewellery seller, beer vendors, one shashlik stall, two sweets stalls - greeted each customer at their stand with genuine delight, since among themselves they were lamenting the poor sales.

Interestingly, Bauska has two well-known breweries - Bauskas Alus and Lodiņš - yet what was sold was unequivocally only Lielvārde Lāčplēsis beer and cider. The impression was one of a certain lack of local patriotism in not wishing to support events taking place in one's own town.

In one of the tents I found the idea for an excellent gift - a photograph printed on a chocolate bar, made to order - www.artende.lv (see here, it may come in handy).

Order at the event was maintained by ALABAIS, a young but apparently well-functioning firm. The entire perimeter of the castle hill was fenced off to prevent uninvited guests, and the security guards who stood duty by the stage for at least 10 hours at a stretch gave the impression that belongings left to one side were reasonably safe when one wanted to think of nothing but dancing a waltz.

Around 1:00 our feet were thoroughly tired - we had not danced so well in a long time. To heighten the magic of the romantic night adventure, we walked along the bank of the Mūsa through the dew-drenched cold grass to cross over the rope bridge to Bērzkalni. It was an eerie feeling - a dimly lit, narrow little bridge, the water of the Mūsa flowing somewhere in the darkness below, the ground swaying underfoot with every step.

That night we lay awake for a long time before falling asleep, listening to the wedding musicians' music drifting over from the castle hill. "Bērzkalni" is actually a lovely guest house, where each room has its own name and corresponding decor - fern, lily-of-the-valley, poppy, water lily, and so on. We had settled into a hostel-type room on the upper floor (without facilities inside) called Magpie. All in all, if you need to stay overnight in Bauska, I recommend - http://www.berzkalni.lv/. The reception girls are very responsive and warm, and booking is entirely without formality (one phone call suffices). What surprised us most was the question - what time would we like breakfast? It turned out we could simply name the time at which we wanted our table set.