Tallinn to Ring in Old Town Days with High Wire Act
On Saturday, the annual Tallinn Old Town Days festival will open with a spectacle featuring an 8x10-meter inflatable dragon and high wire cyclists - provided the act receives approval from the National Heritage Board.
A procession that will begin at 12:30 and lead from Freedom Square to Town Hall Square will be followed by an open-air spectacle entitled 'Balthasar and the Dragon of the North' at 13:00 on Town Hall Square, reported Postimees. Co-produced by the XXXI Tallinn Old Town Days and the Tallinn Treff Festival, and directed by Sasha Pepelyaev, the production will feature singers, dancers, vampires, skeletons, and other common medieval figures. The Estonian band Metsatöll will provide the music for the spectacle.
"It is a humorous mix of the tale of the Dragon of the North and the story behind Balthasar Russow's chronicle," explained the festival organizer Anne Velt.
The Dragon of the North is intent on devouring the city of Tallinn. Climbing the walls of the Town Hall and swallowing everything in its way, the Dragon comes across the author of the Livonian Chronicle Balthasar Russow who is marveling at the high wire cyclists descending from the tower of the Town Hall.
If plans are approved, the high wire cyclists from Trikivabrik will be performing their tricks on a wire strung between the towers of the Town Hall and Pühavaimu Church. The expert analysis commissioned from the Tallinn University of Technology by the organizers deemed the high wire act feasible under certain conditions. All it lacks now is approval from the National Heritage Board.
"On Town Hall Square, Russow will pay tribute to Kreutzwald and Jaan Kross, who have kept the stories of Balthasar Russow and the Dragon from fading into oblivion," said Pepelyaev. "The production involves many people and the acting area is large, so something will constantly be happening in each corner. We will try to create an atmosphere in which the medieval carnivalesque meets the mystical, tinged by the horror brought on by the appearance of the beast. After all, Tallinn is known for being a city where it is still possible to get a feel of the medieval."
Sigrid Maasen