On the seaside, representatives of 102 youth, middle-aged, and veteran dance groups will gather. Participants from various cities and regions of Latvia, as well as guests from Lithuania and Estonia, will come to Jurmala. The festival will take place for the second time and will be part of the Kauguri Festival program. The celebration will begin not on the beach, but on Tallinna Street — here, dancers will participate in the opening of the Kauguri Festival. The program will feature well-known Latvian folk dances, after which the main event will move to the beach. One of the festival's features will be an unusual natural scenography. Each group will create its own fragment of a huge "braid" in the sand. Gradually, these elements will connect into a long composition that will stretch along the shore of the Gulf of Riga and serve as a natural backdrop for mass dances. Against the backdrop of the sandy "braid," participants will perform several large-scale folk dances, including Garais dancis (Long Dance), Pankūkdancis (Pancake Dance), Dvieļu deja (Towel Dance), and Gatves deja (Street Dance). The organizers hope to create one of the most impressive dance performances on the seaside. After the general performance, the celebration will continue at several points along the shore. Groups will present dances from their regions and numbers from their own repertoire, while some participants will unite for a special program dedicated to the Sea Mother. The climax of the festival is planned for sunset. Dancers will change from folk costumes into white linen shirts and participate in the traditional "White Bathing." Participants will enter the sea and create dance patterns in the water, reminiscent of the movement of waves. The idea's author and artistic director of the festival is Dace Kaleja, the leader of the groups "Jūrmaldancis" and "Ābelīte." The main concept of the project is to take folk dance beyond the usual stage and connect Latvian traditions with the natural space. The "Sea Braid" festival already has its history. In 2022, a similar event gathered more than 600 dancers from 35 groups on the beach of Jurmala. At that time, participants also performed mass dances against the backdrop of the sand braid, and the evening concluded with a collective "White Bathing." This year, the event will be significantly larger: instead of several hundred participants, more than two thousand dancers will take to the shore. The organizers hope to transform Kauguri beach into a space where the sea, sand, folk costumes, and Latvian dance become part of a unified performance.
