Baltic Day Festival in Mullingar to commemorate freedom march

A Baltic Day Festival, to commemorate the anniversary of the Baltic Way freedom march and to let local people get to know their Baltic neighbours better, has been organised for next Sunday, August 25, in the Bandhall, Mullingar.

There will be a feast of traditional Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonia song and dance, from 12 noon till 6pm,. Special guests will be a Polish dance group from Dublin. All will be wearing traditional costumes. Local band Coinflip will also perform.

There will be food trucks outside selling vegan options, burgers, crepes, coffee and other treats; indoors there will be a craft fair, woodturning, hair braiding, face painting and jewellery making. There will be fresh honey, bread and other baked goods.

“We want to show the local community all we have to offer and to celebrate integration,” said Raimonda Masiulyte-Ramchurn, international pop jazz/soul singer, and one of the organisers of the event.

Raimonda came to Ireland from Lithuanian 14 years ago. “I love it here, its musical heritage, making new friends, socialising,” she said.

She moved from Dublin to Mullingar during lockdown. “I felt Mullingar was a good place to be and I love it here and I want to bring something to the local community.” Raimonda took a break from her singing career when her daughter Fiona was born. “It’s about her now,” she said.

The Baltic Way was a peaceful demonstration on August 23, 1989, when approximately 2 million people joined hands to form a 690 kilometre human chain across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which had been occupied and annexed by the USSR.

The Baltic Day Festival is a commemoration of that event and a chance to reach out to the local community, Raimonda said. She thanked Westmeath County Council for their support of the venture.

Tickets on eventbrite.ie.