For the first time in ages, a dance festival was held in the Harju County village of Kolgaküla on Saturday – with funds raised by the event helping nascent Loksa folk dance group Kerrukad buy their dancers traditional Estonian folk dress.

"The ideal set we'd love for our entire group to have costs more than €30,000," Kerrukad group leader Annely Jürimets highlighted. "But our goal today is more modest – we're trying to manage with €6,500."

For this amount, they'll be able to outfit their men with pants and women with unembroidered midriff blouses and headdresses – although Kuusalu folk dress is typically richly adorned with embroidery.

According to craftsperson Anu Randmaa, folk dancers are actually already late in ordering new folk dress, as weaving the fabric for skirts and making the traditional dress all take time.

"Embroidery, I think, if you're putting in intense workdays, eight hours a day, a wide [blouse] embroidery could take as much a month," Randmaa highlighted.

For the past decade or so, the expectation has been that folk dance groups will acquire their local regional dress – not like during the Soviet occupation era, when nearly half the field was filled with either Muhu or Mustjala dress.

Among other factors, dancers will be judged at their auditions for their skill in wearing Estonia's traditional dress, as this makes up part of the country's dance tradition. Also to be judged is the dress itself – although this doesn't mean that a complete set will be required.

"A girl will clearly definitely need a shirt and belt and ideally a striped skirt," said folk dance lead Sille Kapper-Tiisler. "The blouse doesn't have to feature the most intricate flower embroidery; it can initially be simpler, without the embroidery, with a little bit of lace."

Folk dance groups are expected to present a uniform appearance, however certain elements of traditional Estonian dress are indicative of the status of the person wearing them.

While exact customs vary by region, headdresses (tanud) and aprons (põlled), for example, are most often traditionally worn by married women – and Randmaa doesn't think it's right for unmarried women to wear them.

"It's also somewhat of an awareness issue," the craftsperson explained. "This is where the visual image creators and folk dress [experts] should be negotiating to find a middle ground somewhere."

"At the Dance Festival, a dancer is playing a role in a sense, so it can happen that if you're playing the role of a mother, then it'll be requested that everyone wears a headdress and of course an apron too," Kapper-Tiisler explained.

Following Saturday's fundraiser, Kerrukad are halfway to meeting their initial goal of €6,500. But money for folk dress isn't the only possible benefit.

"Everyone is short on men, and constantly," Jürimets explained. "We announced as much, and rumor has it that some new faces will be joining our next practice already."

The XXVIII Song and XXI Dance Festival "Iseoma" will take place in Tallinn, Estonia, on July 3-6, 2025.

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