Visuals and values
XXVIII Song Celebration and XXI Dance Celebration | ‘Kinship’
3-6 July 2025
At the time of the very first Estonian Song Celebration in 1869, the country was in the midst of an age of awakening—a unification of a nation once divided by dialects but now connected by a standardized written language. Then, as now, the Song Celebration brought Estonians together in their love for both their language and their homeland.
Over the years, we have collectively nurtured and passed down the tradition of expressing this love through song and dance. At the same time, we recognize that we are individuals, each distinct in our own way. Alike, but different.
The 2025 Celebration honors people and their humanity in all its diversity. It celebrates both the language that unites us and the dialects that distinguish us. This time, singers and dancers from every corner of the country will bring their unique expressions to the stage: a million notes, a million steps, a million people. Together, they will form one voice and one nation, united in kinship.
Artistic Director of the XXVIII Song Celebration: Heli Jürgenson
Lead Choreographer of the XXI Dance Celebration: Helena Mariana Reimann
Creative Director of the Folk Music Celebration: Helin Pihlap
XXVIII Song and Dance Celebration: ‘Kinship’ | Design concept: ‘Differences united’
We’re all different, but together – those taking part in the Song and Dance Celebration and those attending them – we form a very special whole. The visuals for the festival were born from this combination of individuality and unity, which I refer to as the ‘blossom of united differences’. The graphic elements of the logo were inspired by widely known plants that grow in Estonia’s fields and forests, while the logomark itself was construed by merging a variety of elements. The modernist treatment given to the logo is all-embracing and designed to bring together people from different communities, age groups and social backgrounds.
In a number of formats, backdrops utilising freestyle geometry have also been added to the logo, generating the sense of emotional diversity characteristic of this particular festival while at the same time enabling the specific needs of the Song Celebrations, Dance Celebration and Folk Music Celebration to be functionally distinguished from one another via the designated colour system. The colour model in general is marked out by its summery positivity.
Marko Kekishev, designer
