A bit about Visagino Country 2010

So I visited my first Visagino Country music festival this year and would like to share a few thoughts and pics.

I arrived to Visaginas on Friday evening, a few hours before the beginning of the festival. Since a friend of mine invited me, I stayed with him. When I arrived the opening parade was getting under way. There were mostly bikers and one huge Hummer H2, but everyone could join in with their car.

Visagino Country parade

The event took place at a football (soccer for those from The US) stadium. The whole territory was paved using rubber tiles, except for a bit in the middle, which was left uncovered so that people could sit and chill out on the grass.  Around the stage, there were many food and souvenir courts. The variety of food was excellent, you could choose from traditional Lithuanian dishes to all kinds of barbequed meat and corn dogs. Snack lovers also had lots to choose from, including ice cream, pop corn and really interesting potato crisps on a stick in various flavors.  Alcoholic beverages included beer, cider and fruit punch.

Festival atmosphere

I particularly enjoyed the atmosphere of the festival.  There were no compulsory dress code, but most people were dressed like cowboys and cowgirls. It is really cool to see so many people wearing cowboy hats, which is a really rare peace of clothing in Lithuania. You could buy these hats at the festival; the prices were a bit steep though, ranging from 30 to 150 litas for nice leather ones. I bought mine for 18 in Vilnius, which was exactly the same as ones for 40 litas at the festival.

Buying a cowboy hat

I particularly enjoyed the atmosphere of the festival.  There were no compulsory dress code, but most people were dressed like cowboys and cowgirls. It is really cool to see so many people wearing cowboy hats, which is a really rare peace of clothing in Lithuania. You could buy these hats at the festival; the prices were a bit steep though, ranging from 30 to 150 litas for nice leather ones. I bought mine for 18 in Vilnius, which was exactly the same as ones for 40 litas at the festival.

The main stage was quite big and had a round LED screen in the middle, so that everyone could see the show. I’m not a big country music enthusiast, so I don’t know much about the bands (posted the list of them in my previous entry about Visagino Country). For me personally, the most memorable were “Vixva”, Zydeco Annie and” Swamp Cats” and Pete Anderson and “The Swamp Shakers”.  Just outside of the stadium there is Visaginas Lake with a nice public beach, so everyone could cool off, because temperatures during the day climbed above 32 degrees centigrade (90°F).

The festival ended on Sunday at 2 in the morning. The closing ceremony included a fireworks display, award ceremony for those who helped to organize the festival and the singing of festival’s anthem “Seni draugai” (Old Friends) by Virgis Stakenas, founder of Visagino Country.

Check out more pics here

MOOR AT THE MUSIC PORT – The Klaipeda Sea Festival

Every year, in the seaport city of Klaipeda an incredible festival is held. It is called The Sea Festival. This annual event is well known all over Lithuania and other European countries. Sea Festival is a very important event for Klaipeda. Many guests from Lithuania and other nations (Germany, The Netherlands, and Estonia) visit this festival. Local residents nicknamed the festivities – Second or Summer Christmas.

The first Sea Festival was organized in 1934. Then it was called Sea Day. The purpose of the festival was to popularize The Baltic Sea, strengthen the image of Lithuania as a sea shore nation and to promote the establishment of Lithuanian shipping industry.

The event was canceled in 1940 by the Soviets. The year 1963 is considered to be the rebirth of The Sea Festival. That year the USSR maritime force organized The Navy Day parade. Ships and submarines arrived from Kaliningrad to demonstrate the naval power of the regime.  Since 1964 the militaristic aspects of the festival began to fade away and were being replaced by events more suitable for normal towns’ people.  The god of sea Neptune becomes an irreplaceable character of the celebration. Every year he is inviting everyone to participate in the festivities. In 1973 the festival settled on its current format. Guests from all over the country are invited, cultural and artistic aspects dominate throughout the events.

The biggest Sea Festival was held in 2002, when it coincided which the 750 anniversary of Klaipeda’s establishment. More than 1 million tourists visited the event that year.

This year the festival took place on 30 July – 1 August.  There were 107 events and shows held during those days. You can check out the whole festival program here.  It was the 51 time that the biggest summer festival was organized.  More than 1000 artists performed on stage and during the street parade. The event certainly didn’t disappoint.

If you plan to spend your summer holidays in Lithuania make sure to visit The Sea Festival in Klaipeda. You’ll definitely have an unforgettable time there.

“Visagino Country” music festival

“Visagino Country” – one of the biggest country music festivals in Eastern Europe, which earned international recognition and is proclaiming Lithuania far away from it’s borders. The main stage hosts more than 100 artists every year. Musicians from more than 25 countries have already played in this festival . Among all the guests there are world famous country music stars that became fans of this festival and are a prepared to return whenever it takes.

Visagino Country music festival

The festival takes place at a strikingly beautiful nature’s corner of Aukštaitija, on the picturesque shores of a lake, in the youngest town of Lithuania – Visaginas.
There are 4 people who arethought to be the founders of Visagino Country. They are Virgis Stakėnas – famous country music artist, who first had an idea to organize a country music festival, Edmundas Žalpys, who in 1991 worked at The Ministry of Culture,  Sigitas Morkūnas who also worked at the same ministery. Last, but not least Vytautas „Kugelis“ Stauga, who organized the first festival in August of 1991. The town of Sniečkus (now called Visaginas) was chosen to host the event. It is being held there ever since.
This year the 17^th “Visagino Country” festival will take place on 13-14^th of August. The participants of this year’s event will be Mary Ann Scot and band (Belgium), Zydeco Annie and “Swamp Cats” (Germany), “Apple Jack” (Russia), “Turnover” band (Italy), “Jonis” (Lithuania), Virgis Stakenas (Lithuania), “Vixva” (Lithuania), “Vydraga +” (Lithuania), Sepa ir “Emburgas Zeni” (Lithuania/Latvia), Pete Anderson and “The Swamp Shakers” (Latvia).
Additional events that will be held during the festival are: a motorized parade of all the participants and guests on the streets of Visaginas, fun games, contests, star observatory, line dancing and much more.
“Visagino Country” music festival is for everyone who loves country music and appreciates live performances by excellent musicians.

Airport Transportation With Ease

So you’ve flown to some country for the first time. You claimed your baggage (you’re not always so lucky though), left the terminal and your hotel is nowhere to be seen, then what? The common popular choice would be to get into a cab, bus or train (not sure how many airports have these).  There is a fourth way however, which we’ll talk about later. Let’s discuss these options in more detail starting which the least popular and moving up.

The Choo Choo Train:

Traveling by train is certainly comfortable. There is plenty of space and it is traffic jam proof. Trains are also usually less crowded than buses.  However trains have one major flaw – they are track-bound. This means that you can only travel where the train tracks will take you, most commonly to the local train station.  The problem with this is that there aren’t so many hotels close to the train station, cause they would need some serious sound proofing.  So in the end, you would still need to finish your journey using some other means of transport, that doesn’t need tracks e.g. a camel or an elephant.

The Good Old Bus:

A bus is probably the most popular budget travelers’ choice.  There is no doubt that it is the cheapest way, but how cheap is it in reality? As we know buses are usually crowded, stuffy and noisy. It also rarely smells like roses inside one of them. The bus has a similar problem like the train, it doesn’t come to you, and you have to get to it at a bus station.  If you don’t mind hauling your heavy luggage for few hundred yards by all means use the bus (I am not a fan of heavy lifting myself).  You will also most likely have to get on another bus after a few stops, if you want to get as close to your hotel as possible. Route planning might take quite a while, especially if you can’t read the bus schedule. What is more, if you want to triple the chances of getting robbed and loose your vacation cash, a bus is #1 choice.

The Big Yellow Taxi (not always yellow):

There not much to be said about a taxi. A taxi driver usually finds you, no need to yell “taxi” or whistle. If you travel to a country that isn’t in Europe or a former British colony a cab driver knows about 3 words in English. These gems are usually: “hello”, “taxi”, “ok”.  After getting in the cab, using some kind of sign language to explain where you want to go, you’re on your way. At your destination you are pleasantly surprised that your trip costs an arm and a leg, or at least a nice dinner. It is a well known fact that the fair to travel from the airport (especially if you’re a foreigner) is about four times bigger than the standard fee. And are you sure that the route you took is the shortest possible, or were you traveling in a spiral…

The fourth way – traveler’s salvation:

Let me introduce you to the strange thing called Airport Transfer Service (sometimes called shuttle service). The idea is simple: when your plain lands, a driver, holding a card with your name on it, is waiting for you at the gates. He escorts you to the car, helps you with your bags and gets you to your hotel, no questions asked. These drivers also speak English better, because they are hired to drive mostly foreigners and they can also tell you a few things about local customs and places to visit. Sounds fancy and expensive huh? Well, allow me to demystify all of this so called luxury. Finding airport transportation services is really easy. Just type it in your favorite search engine (A.K.A Google) and don’t forget to include the city you are traveling to.  I did a random search and found such a service in e.g Lithuania (what the?) it is plainly called Vilnius Airport Transfer. You see, it’s simple, just the service title and name of the city. When you visit one of these websites you’ll find a short registration form with basic information about details of your arrival. Fill it out and you should receive a confirmation e-mail with the price of your trip. If a service you are using doesn’t give the price in advance, you should look for something else, otherwise you will just end up with taxi service that I “praised” earlier.

Let’s move on to the big question – is it expensive? The answer is simply, NO. The normal airport transfer will not cost more than a taxi ride. And why should it? They will not charge you for the peace of paper your name is written on, so what else is there. You shouldn’t expect that a limo will pick you up though, or that will cost extra.

So, to wrap up, I hope I managed to explain, which my favorite airport transportation method is. For those who forgot what they read already – it’s airport transfer, d’oh. In my opinion, you should definitely give it a try. There nothing to loose, you’ll know how much you have to pay and if you won’t like it, there is always a cab next time.