Visaginis Country Music Festival

This weekend I took the train out to Visaginis, a small town in eastern Lithuania on the border with Belarus, to visit a friend doing a photo documentary project and attend the Visaginis Country Music Festival.  On Saturday and Sunday nights, I — along with a crowd of Lithuanians wearing cowboy hats — listened to country music by bands from Lithuania, Poland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the US of A.  It felt a lot a like county fair in the US, except for the lack of 4-H club kids and their livestock.  The music was not the best country music I’ve ever heard, but it was loads of fun.  Sunday night featured a great performance by Virgis Stakėnas, who apparently single-handedly introduced country music to Lithuania through a radio show that he hosted.  Here he is performing “Mama, don’t wake up” at the 2007 Visaginas Country Music Festival.

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