No quarantine exemption for third-country participants in music festival
Performers coming from outside Estonia to appear in August's annual Birgitta music festival in Tallinn will be subject to the same coronavirus border requirements as regular travelers, the government has ruled. This means that a theater and ballet troupe from Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia, planning to take part, will have to quarantine for ten days on arrival.
The Birgitta Festival is held under the eaves of the Pirita Convent ruins, west of Tallinn city center, and this year runs August 6-14.
The program this year includes operas from Puccini, Verdi and Tchaikovsky.
Under the current restrictions, foreign citizens from countries not on the high-risk list and who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 do not have to quarantine on arrival.
Arrivals from high-risk, non-EU countries must still, however, quarantine for 10 days, and even then after returning negative on a coronavirus test in their country of origin, prior to arrival.
The quarantine period can be shortened by taking two tests once in Estonia, with a six-day gap between the two, meaning the minimum quarantine period for members of the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theater troupe, due to perform the Tchaikovsky Opera "Yevgeni Onegin" will be six days.
The government discussed making an exemption Thursday, but opted not to, due to the deteriorating coronavirus situation in Russia and following the recommendation of justice minister Maris Lauri (Reform).
Current restrictions permit outdoor events with up to a thousand participants.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
