Metaphorically speaking (in the Romance languages), white night means a sleepless night, and this year as usual in early September, residents and guests of Riga are invited to join the experience of a sleepless night full of surprising sensations in central Riga, Old Town, Jugla, Teika and other neighborhoods. The night will be saturated with various forms of contemporary art – concerts, installations and performances in the the urban environment, exhibitions, multimedia projects and poetry readings.
This year's White Night events will take place at traditional and new cultural venues in Riga, such as the Vidzeme Market, Tram nr1, Puppet Theater, Riga Circus, Bergs Bazaar, Dome Square and Town Hall Square, RTU Ķīpsala Swimming Pool, Tallinas Street Quarter, VEF Palace of Culture and VEF Summer House, Juglas Manufaktūra and on the shore of Lake Jugla, AB Jetty, Riga Church of the Cross, Riga St. Martin's Church and the Anglican Church, at exhibition and cultural venues in Riga Old Town, Agenskalns, Imanta and Riga city center, the Botanical Garden of the University of Latvia, the Splendid Palace Cinema, the Latvian Railway Museum and several educational institutions.
The White Night 2024 invites us to "open up the unknown, to look behind the doors that are often not opened in everyday life and to listen to those who are rarely or never heard. In our everyday lives, we experience the city in a very functional way, the White Night invites us to turn away from our daily route to speak in the language of art about the unknown, the newly discovered, the moving, the inspiring... On this night, we all try to create a space for conversation together".
The forum will symbolically and practically connect Riga from the suburbs Imanta to Jugla, including the city center and the districts along tram line nr1. The tram itself will also turn into a rave and a moving performance during the White Night.
The 19th White Night Forum will feature events that are already popular and eagerly anticipated by visitors, such as the adventurous music festival Skaņu Mežs, the Poetry Disco, the contemporary art festival Survival Kit and Videography: Space Textures, an exhibition at the Riga Contemporary Art Space and experiments in contemporary art and music. A number of new events will be added to the to more well known and popular projects.