The holiday weekend ended with an impressive Latvian Song & Dance Festival finale at Van Andel Arena and Jack Johnson’s tour stop at Acrisure Amphitheater. Recaps, videos, photos.
Globe-Spanning Charm: Dancers at the Latvian Song & Dance Festival and Hawaii’s Jack Johnson at Acrisure Amphitheater. (Photos/John Sinkevics/Steve Baran)
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Five days after it all started, attendees at the Latvian Song & Dance Festival in Grand Rapids were still reveling in the Baltic nation’s rich culture into the wee hours of the night on Sunday, with Latvia’s popular dance/party band Bermudu Divstūris pumping up celebrants at the farewell party in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel’s Ambassador Ballroom.
With more than two dozen concerts and events taking place morning, afternoon and night at 11 different venues, the international festival being held in Grand Rapids for the first time really did adopt the theme of the Bermudu Divstūris hit “We’re Partying, We’re Not Sleeping” (aka, “Ballejam Negulam”) that you could even hear fans chanting in the corridors of the hotel.
The festival finale — which also featured Trejdeviņi and Pēdējais Vilciens — wrapped up a day highlighted by the Grand Folk Dance Concert (Tautas Deju Lieluzvedums) at Van Andel Arena, a late afternoon/early evening affair featuring 800 dancers from across the globe performing intricate, choreographed dances to traditional folk songs and more modern compositions.
The resplendently colored spectacle entranced thousands of spectators on hand during performances of songs such as “Country Dance,” “The Squirrels’ Polka,” “Five Wolves Scold the Goat,” “Pigs in the Buckwheat,” “Nuts in My Pocket” and “Let the Flowers Bloom,” concluding with the uplifting “My Beautiful Fatherland” and “The Banks of the Daugava.”
The event also boasted an “exchange of the flags,” with organizers announcing that the 2027 festival would take place in Seattle. Check out more coverage of the Latvian Song & Dance Festival at Local Spins here.
Sunday’s early evening rain also didn’t keep acoustic rocker/surfer Jack Johnson from entertaining fans at the outdoor Acrisure Amphitheater just down the street from the Latvian festival hoopla, with his debut performance at the new venue featuring plenty of water-related selections, including “Drink the Water,” “Monsoon,” “Bubble Toes” and the Jimmy Buffett cover, “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”
The 30-song affair — which followed opener Hermanos Gutierrez — also featured fan favorites “Upside Down,” “Do You Remember” and “Good People,” concluding with one of his most iconic hits, “Better Together.” (View the full set list here.)
Browse photo galleries from the festival and Johnson’s concert below, along with videos from the Grand Folk Dance Concert and Farewell Party.
PHOTO GALLERY: Grand Folk Dance Concert at Van Andel Arena
Photos by John Sinkevics
VIDEO: Bermudu Divstūris at Farewell Party (Amway Grand Plaza Hotel)
Courtesy of David Zadvinskis
PHOTO GALLERY: Jack Johnson at Acrisure Amphitheater
Photos by Steve Baran
