Estonian holidays, festivals, cultural events
One of the organizers of the first song festival was Johann Voldemar Jannsen. In the first
three festivals only men's choirs and brass orchestras participated. 822 singers and 56 brass players participated in the first
festival. Starting with the fourth festival, mixed choirs were also participating. Starting with the sixth festival in 1896, the
festival tradition moved to Tallinn.
It began in 1947, during the first song festival (Laulupidu) held after the Soviet occupation, when a centuryold national poem,
forbidden by the Soviets, was set to music. "Mu Isamaa on minu arm" ("Lands of My Fathers, Land That I Love") was set to
music and the song became the unofficial Estonian national anthem that miraculously slipped by the Soviet censors. In 1969,
more than a hundred thousand participants gathered for the century anniversary of a national song festival and, in a
spontaneous act of nonviolent resistance, sang this song
annaabi.ee 
