June 1^st was a rainy day, but it did not change the fact that the city of Tartu had been taken over by children and youngsters. Everywhere in Tartu you could see young people with their friends and balloons hastening from tents to tents looking for new free time activities and participating in workshops.

Tartu Youth Work Centre has organised festivities in honour of the International Day for Protection of Children for more than fifteen years. Unlike in some countries, June 1^st is not a public holiday in Estonia, but the classes and teachers could take part in the activities already during the school day. There were around forty-five organisations and partners offering the activities to young people from the morning to the late evening, and not only in the centre of the town. For example, classes could take part in stencil, pottery or fabric bag designing in one of the Tartu Youth Work Centre´s locations in Annelinn, the biggest suburban in Tartu. Museums and other cultural and free time institutions, such as Tartu Toy Museum, Science Centre AHHAA and Tartu Nature House were also involved in offering extra fun to youngsters.

DIGGILOO partners Tartu Youth Work Centre and Finnish Institute in Estonia cooperated for the first time on the International Children´s Day. In the main tent of Tartu Youth Work Centre, youngsters were given a map of the city centre. The mission was to follow the spots on the map and collect and photograph sentences from the beloved Moomin stories by Tove Jansson. The sentences were hidden in the centre of Tartu. This orientation game called “The Adventure Towards Books” ended up in the library of the Finnish Institute, where young people got reading tips and a small surprise. There were six groups, some of them with a teacher, that reached the target and came to have a chat in our library.  

In addition to various activities, there was a dense stage programme in the centre of Tartu with young musicians, singers, and dancers from the local music and dance schools. The main performer of the evening was a famous 24-year-old Armenian-Estonian singer and songwriter Stefan Airapetjan, who represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest this year with the song “Hope”. The wonderful stage programme ended with a splendid video, light and sound installation “Natura Obscura”. It was created by a group of Tartu2024 Extended, a project of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024, where young people learn to organise cultural events to other young people.

This year’s slogan of the International Children´s Day was “Be brave to be yourself!” and the theme was the mental health of children and young people. Around four thousand young and keen participants showed me that there was an urgent need for a youth event where young people could get together after the harsh Covid period. I really enjoyed the joy, energy and curiosity of the young people on the 1^st of June!

Text and photos: Heidi Iivari, Project Manager, Finnish Institute in Estonia / DIGGILOO