The initial rehearsal, held at the Estonian concert hall, provided clearer direction to singers and conductors preparing for the big event, and an overview of the festival's cohesive sound.

The main Laulupidu takes place at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn every five years – though the XXVIII festival, named "Iseoma," is to be held next year even as the last main festival took place in 2019.

The repertoire for 2025 incorporates a great deal of arrangements which include dialect and regional folk differences, in concert deeply contemplating Estonian identity and its roots.

Heli Jürgenson, the festival's artistic director, said: "I see in the current program many composers who have managed to introduce new patriotic songs themed around Estonia."

"We have a gold standard that everyone always wants to sing, but it seems to me that this festival's repertoire will add a lot of fresh colors," Jürgenson went on.

"[Popular singer] Liisi Koikson, [performing] with the children's choirs, is making good of a very bright choral arrangement of her solo song, and Olav Ehala has turned one of his into a lovely joint choir song; something which he suggested himself. So while these are well-known artists to us, even so, the songs are presented as new," Jürgenson continued.

Rehearsals for some choirs started early, to allow for coordination with other singers.

Ene Uuland, a music teacher at Saarepeedi school in Viljandi County, acknowledged that the children's choirs' program is challenging, but beneficial. "Experience has shown that taking on these difficult songs with children's choirs actually raises that choir's level," she told AK.

Angela Sihver, the conductor of the Rakvere-based Vironia mixed choir, said: "The feelings are actually very positive."

"Listening to these songs here gives a very clear picture, and now I feel good going to choir practice tomorrow and telling the choir that we are learning these songs, we see the effort, but the result will indeed be fantastic," Sihver added.

Meanwhile Eerik Robert Ots, a singer with the mixed choirs Head Ööd, Vend ja Eesti Noorte Segakoor, said: "For me, as a male singer, I really like the program because there is one song that is primarily a solo for men."

"While usually women are in the soloist role, 'Oh, Adam' is a folk song arrangement where men play a leading role," Ots added.

Ots said he considers the mixed choirs' program for the next song festival to be one of the most distinctive of recent years. "I think it is one of the most memorable recently, perhaps personally for me, but I think the program also captures the general spirit of the song festival very well," he said.

The XXVIII song festival and XXI dance festival (Tantsupid) "Iseoma" takes place July 3-8, 2025.

The event's web page is here.

Back in 2021, the decision was made to postpone the XIII youth song and dance festival (noorte laulu- ja tantsupidu) due the following year, due to the Covid pandemic, which it was, to 2023. At the same time, the decision was also made to put back the main song and dance festival a year, from its original date of July 2024. Thus this is the first time in many years the event will be held in a year which doesn't end in a four or a nine.

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