RIGA, July 5. /Corr. TASS Evgeny Antonov/. The major international festival "Laima Vaikule. Jurmala. Rendezvous", which will bring together several dozen performers from Russia, Latvia, Georgia and Ukraine, opens on Tuesday in Jurmala. It will be the first large-scale musical event with Russian artists in the Latvian city after the competition left there in 2014" New wave".

Festival participants

As Vaikule said, the idea was to hold a large four-day festival with representatives different countries She got it last year. After sources of funding were found, she herself took on the task of inviting participants and solving other organizational issues.

Guests of this year's show will be Grigory Leps, Maxim Galkin, Elena Vaenga, Kristina Orbakaite, Verka Serduchka, Lolita, Edita Piekha, Stas Piekha, Soso Pavliashvili, Intars Busulis, Maria Naumova, Olga Rajetska, groups " VIA Gra", "Silver", MBAND, "Time and Glass", Musiqq and others.

“These are my friends, whose work I love,” Vaikule noted. According to her, all the artists agreed to perform for free.

Festival producer Elita Milgrave said that the best light and sound equipment, including 60 tons of screens, will be installed on the stage of the Dzintari concert hall. The event will be broadcast by 10 TV channels for residents of the Baltic countries, Russia, Germany, Israel, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the USA. “That’s 100 million potential viewers,” Milgrave emphasized.

Latvian interest

President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis sent a greeting to the participants and guests. "I believe that this festival will become a place of interesting meetings and creative discoveries, and will make a significant contribution to strengthening international cultural relations", he pointed out. The head of state met with Vaikule and other organizers of the show at the end of last week.

At the opening ceremony, as the chairman of the organizing committee Alexander Shenkman told TASS, the Minister of Culture of Latvia Dace Melbarde, the Minister of Transport Uldis Augulis, the mayor of Jurmala Gatis Truksnis, the mayor of Ventspils Aivars Lembergs, and the vice-mayor of Riga Andris Ameriks are expected.

"We hope that the success of this festival will lead some politicians to think that we need to get closer. This event is a cultural bridge between our countries," Shenkman said.

After the "New Wave"

Previously, various Russian festivals were held in Jurmala every summer. In 2014, on the eve of the “New Wave”, Joseph Kobzon, Oleg Gazmanov and Alla Perfilova, known under the stage name Valeria, were included in the list of persons prohibited from entering the territory of Latvia, by the decision of the country’s Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevich. In the fall, this list also included Russian actors Ivan Okhlobystin and Mikhail Porechenkov. After this, it was decided that the New Wave competition, which for many years was held in Jurmala, will now be held in Sochi.

The Latvian resort city no longer hosts other annual Russian cultural events - the humorous festivals of the Club of the Cheerful and Resourceful (KVN) Voting KiViN and Jurmalina.

Photo: DR

Passed music Festival Limes Vaikule “Lima. Rendezvous. Jurmala", which brought together almost all the CIS pop stars under its banner. In total, almost 200 artists from neighboring countries - Latvia, Russia, Ukraine and other countries - took part in the event.

The project was originally conceived as a replacement for the annual international competition young pop music performers "New Wave", which took place in Jurmala from 2002 to 2014, and has recently been based in Sochi for political reasons - and "Rendezvous 2018", following simple calculations, has become the fourth festival of the people's artist Latvia.

Last year, one of the main newsmakers of the event was Alla Pugacheva, who decided to attend the Rendezvous after a high-profile failure to attend the festival in 2016, where her husband Maxim Galkin was among others.

Last July, it is noteworthy that the intrigue regarding the Prima Donna continued until the last: everyone knew that People's Artist The USSR is visiting Jurmala these days, but they could not say for sure whether Alla Borisovna would deign to come out. All the more impressive was the singer’s appearance in public - Pugacheva appeared before the cameras, as fans and just outside observers noted, “incredibly prettier, tanned and lost weight,” while her black miniskirt created a real sensation.

Diva’s fans also emphasized to themselves that neither she nor Galkin were bored at the festival: such a conclusion could be drawn at least from the short video posted by Maxim on Instagram. It was filmed during the performance MBAND groups with the song “She’ll Come Back,” to which the couple, according to the comedian himself, decided to “punish.”

Based on all this, one could assume that there would be Pugachev’s Rendezvous in 2018, but such expectations were considered unjustified back in the spring, when Vaikule herself spoke about the artist’s absence from the festival.

According to Laima, she did not specifically invite Alla Borisovna to the event, but she inquired about her plans for the summer. The prima donna responded by saying that she would be at the resort only in August, explaining this with concern for the children - supposedly the warmest water in Jurmala will be during last month summer, and the couple really wants their kids to have plenty of fun.

“Alla now has an alternative to Jurmala - a house in Cyprus,” the singer added in an interview with Dni.Ru. “Although it’s in vain that they want to go there: there are cold winds there that poison everything in the world.” Because of them, maybe they will get to the Riga seaside faster. But I will wait for them!”

However, even in Pugacheva’s absence, festival guests had something to see. So, for example, the audience was amazed by the unexpected collaboration of Vaikule and Andrei Makarevich, who performed the famous “Changeable World” and “Three Windows”. Speaking later with representatives of the media, the leader of “Time Machine” expressed words of admiration for Vaikule, calling her “refined” and “always on brand.”

The performance of Verka Serduchka, who last week frightened fans with statements about her imminent departure from the stage due to politics, caused no less excitement:

according to Andrey Danilko (real name of the Ukrainian musician), his further appearances on the stage will be exclusively “local”, and in last time All his listeners will be able to enjoy the artist’s work on the upcoming “farewell tour.”

Today in Jurmala a large press conference was held dedicated to the opening key event summer season 2016 - festival “Rendezvous of Laima Vaikule”. Musical holiday will take place in the Dzintari Concert Hall this week - with the traditional support of Rietumu Bank - and will last four days.

The Laima Vaikule Rendezvous festival took place for the first time last year. The program of the first festival lasted two days. It was then that it was said that the plans and dreams were to create an annual event, which, according to the singer, was supposed to unite wonderful performers on one platform popular music from different countries. Then, at a press conference in 2015, Vaikule said: “Our job is to unite. We can sing, we can be together, we can not forget each other and continue to be friends, this is our mission.”

The “date” in Dzintari won the hearts of spectators and professionals. As a result, the festival program doubled: many popular pop singers Russian and Latvian show business.

“Rietumu Bank supported this festival from the very first step, and we are very glad that it has found its individual creative face, primarily thanks to Laima Vaikule,” said Alexander Gafin, member of the Rietumu Bank Board. - This year the festival has the opportunity to further reveal its potential and reach a new creative level. It is very important, in our opinion, that such a wonderful event was not just a decoration of the Jurmala season - it created new opportunities for the development of Jurmala, its popularity for business and, no less important today, the strengthening of human ties.”

In turn, Laima said that she again invited her friends to the festival: “I love, respect and am sincerely glad to see everyone who will perform here. But I especially want to note that this year the People’s Artist of Russia and Abkhazia, a real world star Khibla Gerzmava, thanks to whom our competition has acquired an even wider international resonance.”

Festival organizer Elita Milgrave also noted that the current festival, unlike previous ones, will receive an even greater international response - it will be watched by more than 100 million people in the Baltics, Russia, the USA, Kazakhstan and other countries of the world.

Famous Latvian performer Intars Busulis said that he loves to take part in all kinds of in a good way this word is adventurous, and therefore participates with pleasure in the Laima festival. Let us note that Intars Busulis will perform at the Laima Vaikule Rendezvous for the second year in a row.

At the end of the first part of the press conference, Alexander Gafin emphasized: “Laima Vaikule is not just a wonderful performer and musician, not only a style icon for at least two generations, but also a wonderful, charming woman who has the gift and ability to truly make friends. Therefore, it is very difficult for her to refuse anyone when organizing such an event. In turn, we, as a bank, have nothing but money, and when she approached us, we didn’t think twice. I can assure you that Laima has a time-tested and reliable partner in Rietumu Bank.”

Khibla Gerzmava, Grigory Leps, Edita Piekha, Emin Agalarov, Kristina Orbakaite, Maxim Galkin, Larisa Dolina, Alexander Buinov, Lolita, Soso Pavliashvili, Vladimir Vinokur, Elena Vaenga, Sergei Mazaev, Vladimir Presnyakov, Natalya Podolskaya will appear on stage together with Laima Vaikule , Stas Piekha, Verka Serduchka, Potap and Nastya, Ilona Bronevitskaya, groups: “Serebro”, “VIA Gra”, “Time and Glass”, “Musiqq”, “M-Band” and, of course, Latvian performers - Intars Busulis , Janis Stibelis, Olga Rajecka, Lauris Reinics and Maria Naumova. Television viewers from different countries will also be able to join in watching the concerts within the festival. The live broadcast will be carried out on the First Baltic Channel in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. And also on TV channels RTVi and Musicbox.

Manifesto of love: how the Laima Vaikule festival “Rendezvous” takes place in Jurmala

Laima Vaikule's Rendezvous festival, taking place right now in Jurmala, has crossed the equator: two bright days are behind us, two more equally enchanting concerts are ahead. What is happening on the Riga seaside - in a report from the site HELLO.RU from the scene.

On the occasion of the festival, many media personalities arrived in Latvia. Among them are Andrei Makarevich, Ani Lorak, Lolita, Semyon Slepakov, Alexander Revva and many others. Jurmala greeted the guests with incredibly hot weather - the thermometer rose to 30 degrees. The artists and spectators, both famous and beginners, were warmly greeted. The hostess of the festival prepared a portion of new duets for each day, which became a kind of “feature” of her event. At the opening on July 19, she performed “Accident” with the group UMA2RMAN, and also joined the Kristovsky brothers on the song “Forgive.”

The second day of the festival was themed and called “Evening of Love”. Unexpectedly, Andrei Makarevich became the headliner, and, what is even more surprising, with his proven hits in a jazz arrangement, he organically fit into the big picture Events. The words “We shouldn’t bend to the changing world / Let it bend to us better” from the lips of Laima and Andrei Vadimovich acquired a special sound and authenticity.

UMA2RMAN

At the rehearsal, Vaikule and Makarevich immediately came to a version that suited both of them; it seemed that the artists had been singing this song together for many years. “It turned out very beautiful,” he said happy with the result musician. It turned out that he met Laima back in 1980, when he came to Jurmala on tour with “Time Machine”. Andrei Makarevich saw Laima’s performance at the Juras Perle bar, after which he expressed his admiration and advised her to conquer big stage. “Even then it was obvious that the scale of her talent did not correspond to the scale of the nightclub,” he says.

Alexander Kogan at a show rehearsal

Lolita Milyavskaya at a show rehearsal

The regular guest of the festival, Lolita, also performed at the “Evening of Love”.

Every year I think with trepidation that Laima may not invite me - the festival needs new faces, the audience wants diversity, and from the point of view of the producer this would be a reasonable step,” says Lolita. - And with great relief and joy I receive an invitation from Laima.

The artist arrived at the festival in advance, and came backstage to the opening as a friend and fan of the festival. While preparing the program for her performance, she included her hit, which suited the theme of the evening, “On the Titanic,” although in her repertoire all the songs are in one way or another about love.

What can I say about this feeling? A woman with five marriages behind her... Today, for me, love is when you are calm. Calm in relationships with a partner. In general, we all need to practice loving our neighbors. Not to the one who is pleasant and nice, but to the one who is annoying. Try to love the one who pisses you off. Then the world will immediately become better and kinder,” the artist concluded philosophically.

Pretty soon Lolita herself will find herself as the mistress own show. From Jurmala, Lolita went straight to her dacha near Moscow.

There I will meet people working on preparing a concert for my 55th birthday. I don't want to plagiarize, use templates and proven moves. Expect something new from me in November! - she boldly stated.

The evening ended with an atomic performance by Verka Serduchka. The team managed to bring not only the entire first row to their feet, but also the audience sitting far from the stage. Perhaps guests of Latvia saw one of last concerts groups from Kyiv. Andrei Danilko said that he is no longer ready to perform as Verka Serduchka.

I would really like to perform in Russia. But a situation has arisen where many are simply afraid to invite us,” he said backstage.

Andrey Danilko as Verka Serduchka at the Rendezvous concert

IN next year the team goes on a tour, which will be a farewell tour.

I miss the time when people came to a concert just to relax, and not look closely and think: is this good or bad? - Andrey Danilko said after the speech.

Atmosphere and guests of the festival "Lima. Rendezvous. Jurmala"

Atmosphere and guests of the festival "Lima. Rendezvous. Jurmala"

Atmosphere and guests of the festival "Lima. Rendezvous. Jurmala"

From the very beginning, the Laima Vaikule Festival declared itself as a territory free from a political agenda, and the concerns of some artists at the Rendezvous were not justified. The audience was friendly and warmly received. "Evening of Love" was a success, giving way to .

Festival "Laima. Rendezvous. Jurmala"