Last Wednesday the doors of the Embassy of the Republic of Estonia in London were opened, accordions were played and glasses of champagne clinked. The Tartu 2024 delegation had arrived to present its cultural program to a group of twenty people, including travel organizers and journalists, as well as representatives of the British Sauna Association.
To the delight of the latter and the highlight of the entire evening, the municipality had also installed an igloo sauna door in the embassy garden a year and a half earlier. And not just so a curious group can get a peek inside. Ambassador Viljar Lubi – himself a native of Tartan! -he had a beer after the presentation and showed that today he would drink steam.
“I think the sauna is becoming a very big thing in Britain, the English are starting to like it more. They feel it’s part of their culture – it reminds them of the times when the Vikings were still doing things on this island. So we’re on fertile ground!”, says Viljar Lubi, Estonian ambassador to the UK.
The ambassador praises the idea of the Tartu 2024 sauna party and confirms that, in his opinion, the sauna stage is a very effective place to do real politics. He talks about “sauna diplomacy” with a straight face.
“My simple message is that in sauna negotiation, for better or for worse, people are always the same. There are no hidden weapons, there are no hidden agendas. Thanks to this, so are we [eestlastena] for centuries we thought that the sauna policy was the most correct policy!”
Does this mean that the ambassador made some important decisions in the sauna too?
“It still is! If you consider that there is a very close cooperation on defense between Estonia and Great Britain and that British soldiers are still on site, ready to protect our independence in case of need… Even very high officials intervened officials from the Ministry of Defense and politicians here in the sauna, with whom we discussed this topic, yes.”
Where did the idea of presenting the Tartu 2024 program in London through a sauna come from?
“The sauna is so important and so typical for Estonians, I would even say a form of culture, and this is also reflected in the Tartu 2024 program,” replies Kati Torp, creative director of the capital of culture project. “We have several sauna-related events, for example the “Naked Truth” project, which brings people together in saunas.”
As part of “The Naked Truth”, mobile saunas will be installed in Emajõe, where an opinion festival will be held. The sauna phases are used as discussion phases. Torp confirms that the sauna theme has been something of a phenomenon in promoting Tartu’s cultural programme.
“Sauna topics are definitely exotic in a good way and very interesting to cover abroad. But we also noticed that one of our biggest projects “Kissing Tartu” is doing very well.”
Among other things, according to Torpi, there is a lot of interest abroad in the Japanese themes covered in the Tartu 2024 program and in the documentary program. The life of the latter is longer than the title of capital of culture itself, as it travels from Tartu to various film festivals.
In addition to London, Tartu 2024 visited Finland, Latvia, Germany and Brussels to present the programme. Early next year the same will be done in Lithuania.
“We are very ready for the title of capital of culture. We have a total of 350 projects and 1000 events with the main and additional programs. So in 2024 you definitely have to come to Tartu and southern Estonia and spend a lot of time there!” Torp is excited.
“Culture is what really speaks to people in the first place,” adds Ambassador Viljar Lubi, summing up the London presentation. “If you know nothing about this country, culture, including tourism, is the first contact. If you are a small and unknown country, like us, the most important thing is to establish that first contact. And it is easier to create it through culture .”
The Capital of Culture program will open in Tartu on January 26. Before and after there will also be openings in Viljandi, Valga, Võru and Põlva. Tartu shares the title of European Capital of Culture 2024 with the Norwegian city of Bodø and the Austrian city of Bad Ischl.
View the gallery with the disclosure of the Tartu 2024 London program here.
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2023-12-05 15:36:22
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