Global Estonianness (eestlus) needs both roots and wings
ESTO President Sirle Sööt: The XIII Global Estonian Festival showed how working together can create something bigger than just a festival.
The XIII Global Estonian Festival, or ESTO 2025, showed that global Estonianness is viable and forward-looking when people act with heart and determination. After three years of meticulous planning, ESTO was held this summer from 25 June–4 July in Stockholm, Narva, and Tallinn, blending gracefully into one with the XXVIII Song and XXI Dance Festival. This is precisely the kind of all-embracing, unifying event we had in mind.
ESTO is more than just a festival; it’s a meeting place where Estonians from all over the world can reaffirm their shared belief in Estonia’s freedom and future, and showcase their cultural heritage. The ESTO 2025 programme was like a rich à la carte menu, offering something for everyone in both Estonian and English.
Stockholm, as a meeting place, provided Swedish Estonians with the opportunity to showcase Estonian cultural heritage in the Swedish capital. It also allowed them to introduce the Estonian House and Estonian School, which serve as strongholds of Estonian identity in Sweden.
The ESTO programme symbolically began with a symbolic walk through Stockholm’s Forest Cemetery, where participants visited the graves of well-known Estonian social figures and bearers of the song festival tradition. We remember the departed with Cyrillus Kreek’s Requiem in both Stockholm and Narva. The joint performance of the Estonia Boys Choir, the ETV Girls’ Choir, the Stockholm Estonian Mixed Choir, the Stockholm Estonian Women’s Choir, and EMTA Sinfonietta under the direction of Hirvo Surva, was a powerful example of Estonian-Swedish cooperation at the highest level.
ESTO 2025 - Opening ceremony at Skansen (26.06.2025)
At the opening ceremony concert Windows of Time, in Skansen, we presented an important chapter of our story. It was there, in the Swedish Open Air Museum, that Estonians were first inspired a hundred years ago to begin organising a dance festival in Estonia. The first Estonian song festival held in exile took place on the same stage in Solliden, Sweden in 1948. The spirit of the Song and Dance Festivals has kept Estonians together through the difficult years of exile, and continues to do so today – they are a symbol of our identity and cohesion.
The words of Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna: ‘You are all Estonian diplomats abroad!’, sounded like an acknowledgement and an appeal at the same time – a vote of confidence in all those who, alongside their everyday lives, are committed to the Estonian cause.
The organised Estonian diaspora forms a powerful and experienced network. Alongside their work and family life, they devote time to social activities that benefit Estonia. Multilingual and open-minded, they are familiar with both their home country and Estonia, and have an extensive network of contacts. They preserve Estonian culture and history and contribute to Estonia’s development wherever they can. To be a diplomat, it is important to understand Estonia and its history, and to keep abreast of developments in society.
One of the objectives of ESTO 2025 was to open doors and build bridges. The Future Forum ‘Opportunities in Ida-Viru County’, held in Narva-Jõesuu, opened up new perspectives on the region’s potential for development in education, business, security, and tourism. In addition to the discussions, the event included visits to the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, the Magnet Factory, Kreenholm, the NART Art Residence, Narva Estonian State Gymnasium and Narva College – after all, seeing is believing.
ESTO 2025 - ESTO Song Festival in the North Courtyard of Narva Castle (29.06.2025)
The youth congress ‘Multilingualism Opens Doors’, which was opened by President Alar Karis, focused on the transition to Estonian-language education in Ida-Viru County. Young researchers, local school leaders and young people born in Estonia and abroad shared their experiences, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities of language learning. For multilingualism to truly flourish, more stories need to be told – both of successes and of difficulties – to create an intrinsic desire to learn languages rather than a sense of obligation. The opportunity to use a language is a prerequisite for language acquisition. In Ida-Viru County, Estonian-language schools and international job opportunities play a significant role in shaping the region’s future.
President Karis encouraged young people to build their lives and homes in Estonia. Studying and working abroad is a natural part of life. After all, the European Union is built on the principle of freedom of movement, and the experience gained abroad will help you to better understand Estonia’s values.
In Narva, our goal was to build friendships, enabling Estonians living abroad to make friends in Ida-Viru County and vice versa. One particular success was the collaboration between Narva-Jõesuu and the Swedish town of Karlskrona – the mayor, who was interested in foreign relations, and the organiser of ESTO, who was a diplomat from Sweden, were able to get the cooperation up and running quickly. ESTO will certainly lead to further new collaborations.
The ESTO Narva programme was developed in cooperation with a variety of local stakeholders, from the Narva city government and museum, to local volunteers and cultural institutions. Although most of the partners spoke Russian as their mother tongue, the working language was Estonian. What proved to be outstanding was the operational communication between the organisers and volunteers during the event via the Messenger group, where solutions to problems were found in Estonian – it was a lively immersion in language.
Something also happened in Narva that clearly demonstrated the strength of our unity. When a storm forced the organisers to move the stage – which had taken three days to build – in only 45 minutes, the organisers and participants calmly accepted the new situation. Conductors Hirvo Surva and Jaanika Kuusik used the song festival light to lead the singers and the audience to a new venue, where the songs continued to resounded powerfully without a stage or any amplification. It is in moments like these that the true strength and unity of a people is revealed.
Useful contacts and like-minded individuals were found during the networking workshops at the Creative Hub, which introduced Estonian schools, youth camps, archives, cultural associations, media outlets, entrepreneurs, researchers and churches abroad. Opportunities abound for cooperation in all areas.
ESTO 2025 - Gala evening at the Lennusadam museum (2.07.2025)
The spirit of ESTO is more than a once-in-five-years event. It is a movement that encourages us to hold on to our roots while spreading our wings. I am convinced that Estonians living abroad are not a distant part of our nation, but an important part of Estonia – people who are familiar with life in both Estonia and their country of residence, and who wish to contribute to cooperation between the two countries.
ESTO 2025 did not simply appear out of nowhere. Contributing to its creation were a big team of volunteers, partners, supporters, local authorities and cultural institutions. In particular, I would like to highlight the openness and willingness to cooperate of the cities of Narva, Narva-Jõesuu and Sillamäe, and their partners. It was touching to see young Russian-speaking people communicating freely in Estonian, finding solutions and acting together. It was a lively immersion in language.
Global Estonianness is not only a matter for Estonians living abroad. It is a matter for Estonia as a whole. We can all be a bridge between Estonia and the world – no matter where we live.
I invite everyone to watch the rebroadcasts of the events of ESTO 2025 and experience how global Estonianness lives and develops:.
See you at the next ESTOs – at home and abroad, wherever Estonia lives.
Sirle Sööt is the President of the XIII Global Estonian Festival (ESTO 2025), Chair of the Union of Swedish Estonians and of the Estonian World Council.
ESTO 2025 links:
ESTO 2025 - estofestival.com
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