With a weekend of festivals, Lithuania’s second largest city Kaunas will end its program as European Capital of Culture 2022. With around 50 events, the third and final part of the “Myth of Kaunas” trilogy will take place in the former capital of the Baltic EU country. Concerts, theater performances, exhibitions and outdoor light and sound installations were planned.
The highlight should be a multimedia show on Saturday evening under the title “The Contract” in the Zalgiris Arena. More than 150 actors, singers and dancers were to stage a performance full of music and theatrical elements, inspired by motifs by the Lithuanian artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911).
The motto of the European Capital of Culture Year in Kaunas is “From temporary to contemporary”. In total, more than 40 festivals, 60 exhibitions and over 250 performing arts events and concerts were planned. Some of them will continue to run even after the official closing weekend.
New legend for the inhabitants
The core of the program was the trilogy “Myth of Kaunas”, spread over three weekends. This was intended to create a new connecting and identity-establishing legend for the city of 300,000 inhabitants. Capital of Culture Director Virginija Vitkiene drew a positive preliminary final balance on Saturday. “Kaunas 2022 was a success,” she said at a press conference.
According to the organizers, almost two million people attended events in the Capital of Culture by the final weekend. But not only the number of visitors pleased Vitkiene. “We didn’t just want to do a fascinating cultural program, we wanted to bring about a change in the city, in the mentality and in the hearts of the citizens,” said the programmer. This was successful.
In addition to Kaunas, Novi Sad in Serbia and Esch in Luxembourg also hold the title of European Capital of Culture in 2022.
