The newly unveiled festival program includes playful installations, tours, a lecture, a community play day, a park exploration workshop and other events that invite people to explore the urban environment with fresh eyes.  

"We believe that play is not just for children – it is important for adults too. It has a positive effect on the body, the mind and relationships. Putting playfulness at the heart of the festival is a kind of counter to the pressure to be productive and efficient all the time – it invites us to enjoy the moment, to play and to discover new possibilities within the urban space," said Marie Valgre, the festival's chief organizer and co-curator.

The Urban Festival UIT (derived from the Estonian word "uitama" – "to wander") is a site-specific art festival which aims to discover the urban space of its host town Tartu from new and exciting angles.

The festival explores ways people interact with and feel about the urban space that surrounds them. The festival cooperates with local and foreign artists working in interdisciplinary mediums to give the festival audience a chance to see their hometown from a new and refreshing perspective.

UIT encourages people to use and enjoy public spaces and to contemplate about different ways we ourselves could make our towns and cities cozier and more diverse.

The ephemeral charm of UIT is embodied in the way the festival gives new life to long forgotten and abandoned places of Tartu – deserted buildings and overgrown gardens which have not stood the test of time. The temporary revival of those sites allows Tartu to expand in abstract dimensions and encourages our audience to dream.

The 2025 UIT Festival takes place in Tartu from August 13-17.

More information about the festival is available here.

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