CHRISTMAS CITY TARTU 2019/2020
Summer is indeed a time of wondrous things – especially in Tartu! It has once again seen the Village of Light on Town Hall Square grow bigger and even fuller of fun and fascinating things to see and explore, inviting Tartuvians and city`s guests in during the festive season from 1 December to 10 January.
Come outside! The Village of Light invites you to the very heart of the city to celebrate the most beautiful time of the year! Take a stroll, get together with friends and family, light Advent candles, cheer on the Santa Winter Games and enjoy a wintry folk dance performance, a Christmas fair, a snowball party for charity, readings of fairy tales by appointed City Writers of Tartu, past and present, and choirs singing. Come to Town Hall Square to enjoy a cosy space between the glass pavilions where fires will be crackling, animal carousels will be spinning and those of all ages waiting for Santa can have fun on swings. You can step into some of the pavilions in the Village of Light, whether for a hot cup of tea, to relax in the straw pavilion, to participate in fun workshops or to explore the mirror pavilion, also known as the Pavilion of Infinity.
This is also a year of important anniversaries for Estonia and Tartu. The Vanemuine Theatre, the oldest among Estonian theatres, celebrating its 150th anniversary, and University of Tartu, celebrating its 100th anniversary as an Estonian-language national university, will be setting up their own pavilions on the most important square in the city. Another of Tartu’s landmarks, the AHHAA Science Centre, will also be part of the Village of Light this year. It is much younger by age than the two aforementioned institutions, but equally aspiring and gathering momentum with its fun and clever approach to science.
This year Christmas City Tartu also feels it wouldn’t really be the festive season without our own henhouse. A little bit of nature will also be brought to the Village of Light by the Click & Grow pavilion and we are delighted that horses from Laane stables are once again coming to Tartu for Christmas. You can find their schedule for a sleigh ride here. Small children can enjoy riding ponies, whose schedule you can find by hopping here.
The Village of Light will be open every day from 9:00-21:00, while traders will be on Town Hall Square from 17:00-21:00 Monday-Friday and from 11:00-21:00 Saturday and Sunday.
The Estonian Academy of Arts and its talented students are the creative partners to Christmas City Tartu this year, we are honoured.
It’s always Christmas in Tartu! And spring!
1st Advent candle and the Christmas lights are lit on 1 December at 5 p.m. on Town Hall Square, see you there!
