Celebrating Vilnius

Any reason is a good reason to have a street festival in Vilnius.  This weekend, we are celebrating Vilnius itself with Sostinės Dienos – Capital Days.  It is actually a smallish festival by Vilnius standards.  As usual, one end of Gedimino Street is closed off and filled with food and craft vendors.  There are several stages for concerts.  On Friday evening, I listened to an excellent bluegrass band.  Electronica, Euro techno-pop and a band that seemed to be channeling ZZ Top were the concert fare on Saturday evening.  Surprisingly, the streets weren’t very crowded on Saturday during the daytime or the evening.  Perhaps the threat of showers or the end of the first week of school kept people at home.

The streets were filled with Scots who were in town for Friday’s football match (soccer, for my American readers) between Lithuania and Scotland.  Most of them were men — and many of them were dressed in kilts and footballer jerseys.  Some were in full kilt regalia, which gained lots of attention from people on the street.   The most curious sight at the festival was a group of Peruvian musicians dressed as American Plains Indians playing Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence.   Oh, how I wish I had my camera.