During the Culture Night (former Let it be Night!) the squares, streets, parks, and the most unexpected spaces in Vilnius are filled with the projects of various types of artistic projects: music, dance, theatre, cinema, photography, state-of-the-art installations, etc. A one-night festival was first organized in Lithuania in 2007 preparing for the events of Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009.
Although, during the very first year only 40 events were hosted in Vilnius, subsequent festivals have involved more and more events and gathered more and more artists as well as participants – last year the festival of culture and art has invited the guests and permanent residents of the city to see 121 projects, presented by 700 artists from Lithuania and foreign countries. It was estimated that the events were attended by approximately 100-150 thousand people.
Initiator of the festival – Daina Urbanavičienė, the Chair of the Lithuanian Council of Culture and the Member of the Council of Vilnius City Municipality.
Idea
Vilnius has long been famous as a multinational and multicultural city, with deep cultural traditions. It is a lively and creative city. The Culture Night, well-liked by both, the residents and guests of Vilnius, will be organized for the eighth year already. The Culture Night is a festival of culture open to everybody and introducing over 150 projects of different spheres of modern art. The event was inspired by the unique idea of La Nuit Blanche and good practices of other cities that have successfully adopted the concept of the festival. The cycle of Culture Night events started in 2007, as a part of the national programme “Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009” and has evolved into a new cultural tradition of Vilnius City. There is no other event, organized annually in the capital city, that has any analogues in terms of abundance and diversity of events.
In the darkness of the Culture Night the theatres, museums, galleries and churches open their doors; music, cinema, dances and installations flood the city spreading over its unique spaces – parks, squares, avenues, small yards and streets of the Old Town. Every year around 500 professional artists, representing different spheres of art, participate in the night festival. The number of the Culture Night events keeps growing with more than 100 projects of different forms offered by artists in recent years.
In our opinion, the main tendency of the ‘Culture Night’, is the quality of projects participating in the festival, upon which depends the development of image and prestige of the event. The ‘Culture Night’ is an open event, during which, not only the professional artists, but also permanent residents and guests of the city become a part of the cultural fuss. The aim of the event is to help the society to discover modern art and indulge in it not only as observes, but also as participants, introducing the event through the dialogue between artists and the audience on the subject of modern values and continuously changing environment and in a way, acceptable to people.
Vilnius has long been famous as a multinational and multicultural city, with deep cultural traditions. It is a lively and creative city. The Culture Night, well-liked by both, the residents and guests of Vilnius, will be organized for the eighth year already. The Culture Night is a festival of culture open to everybody and introducing over 150 projects of different spheres of modern art. The event was inspired by the unique idea of La Nuit Blanche and good practices of other cities that have successfully adopted the concept of the festival. The cycle of Culture Night events started in 2007, as a part of the national programme “Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009” and has evolved into a new cultural tradition of Vilnius City. There is no other event, organized annually in the capital city, that has any analogues in terms of abundance and diversity of events.
In the darkness of the Culture Night the theatres, museums, galleries and churches open their doors; music, cinema, dances and installations flood the city spreading over its unique spaces – parks, squares, avenues, small yards and streets of the Old Town. Every year around 500 professional artists, representing different spheres of art, participate in the night festival. The number of the Culture Night events keeps growing with more than 100 projects of different forms offered by artists in recent years.
In our opinion, the main tendency of the ‘Culture Night’, is the quality of projects participating in the festival, upon which depends the development of image and prestige of the event. The ‘Culture Night’ is an open event, during which, not only the professional artists, but also permanent residents and guests of the city become a part of the cultural fuss. The aim of the event is to help the society to discover modern art and indulge in it not only as observes, but also as participants, introducing the event through the dialogue between artists and the audience on the subject of modern values and continuously changing environment and in a way, acceptable to people.
Uniqueness
- Open platform for young, rising and experimenting artists;
- Opportunity to expose traditional art in a new way and in unconventional spaces;
- Culture without borders, located in alternative and public spaces of the city;
- Opportunity to enter the greatest amount of events for free;
- Diversity and synthesis of many cultural genres;
- Revealing a creative potencial of Vilnius.
Values
Creativity, innovation, partnership, accessibility and openness.
Mission
To become the most spectacular, innovative art festival in Lithuania and Eastern Europe, enrich people free time, surprise and gratify.
Goals
- Take strong strategic position in sector of arts and culture, promote art organizations, encourage individual artists to initiate and disseminate ideas and develop regional and international partnership;
- Increase demand for cultural leisure time;
- Promote renewal of arts and culture in Lithuania, education and initiatives of young artists; strengthen demand for cultural leisure time and cultural activity of the citizens.
- Promote cultural citizenship and sociality by giving a possibility to attend and engage to cultural activities and initiate cultural projects realization ensuring their continuity.
- To ensure growth of the festival in the long run, improve festival organizational team‘s competence and knowledge, also to update the newest IT technologies in order to optimize work.
- To contribute in creation of Vilnius image and to encourage cultural tourism in Lithuania.
Assessment and recognition
- 14 years of experience and a big number of loyal artists and organizations;
- 2011 – an award for “The most successful Lithuanian cultural tourism project”;
- 2013 – admission to the “Nuit Blanche” network, connecting the world‘s best culture night festivals;
- 2013 – the main cultural event for the opening of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union;
- 2015 – 2016 – nominated for the EFFE (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe) label;
- 2015 – Festival “Culture night” named as good practice example in national level and was mentioned in research “Lithuania 2030” strategy realization (by Lithuanian government);
- 2017 – nominated for the EFFE (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe) label;
- 2019 – nominated for the EFFE (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe) label.
