On Friday, 9 October, the full programme of “Liepāja – European Capital of Culture 2027,” entitled “(un)rest,” was publicly announced at the Great Amber Concert Hall in Liepāja. In 2027, it will bring together more than 500 local and international cultural and artistic events in Liepāja and the South Kurzeme and Kuldīga regions. The programme also includes cultural tourism offers and initiatives that will build the capacity of cultural sector professionals and encourage the involvement of young people and local communities.
“Liepāja 2027 is a journey we have been on for several years now, together with artists, thinkers and partners both in Latvia and across Europe. Today we can see how the ideas born along the way come together in one diverse programme. The restless energy of ‘(un)rest’ inspires us to rediscover what is close to home, to see Liepāja’s paradoxes, and at the same time to look beyond the horizon, taking part in the European conversation about freedom, democracy and our shared future. It encourages us to be aware of the natural resources of the Land of (un)rest and to seek mindful moderation in our relationship with the environment and with one another. Creative foresight is also important in the programme: the ability to think today about how the ideas, knowledge and partnerships created during this time will be carried forward. I invite you to be part of this journey: to watch, listen, take part and create together!” says Baiba Bartkeviča, Artistic Director of Liepāja 2027.
The European Capital of Culture year will officially begin on 22 January 2027 with events in Kuldīga and Aizpute, and on 23 January the celebrations will centre on Liepāja, where a large-scale opening programme will unfold across the city’s public spaces and cultural venues. On the Liepāja 2027 opening day, 23 January, the morning will begin with an exciting amber hunt on Liepāja’s beach, followed by educational activities at Liepāja Museum and the international exhibition “Baltic Amber Amazes the World,” which explores the role of amber in culture, history and contemporary art. At the same time, visitors will be able to take the audio walk “Path of (un)rest,” which reveals Liepāja’s character, its layers of history and the city’s ambitions for the future.
At the climax of the evening, Liepāja will become a vast stage where the cityscape, music, light and people merge into a single event. Highlights include the outdoor concert performance “City Symphony,” directed by Matīss Kaža, co-director of the Academy Award-winning animated film Flow, and the concert ceremony “Winds Symphony” created by director LAURA (Laura Groza), for which Ēriks Ešenvalds is composing a new work especially for the Liepāja 2027 opening. Ticket sales for the concert “Winds Symphony” will begin on 13 October 2026 at all Biļešu Paradīze box offices and online.
After the main opening events, visitors and locals alike will be invited to continue the celebrations in bars, restaurants, cafés, clubs, galleries and other cultural venues, experiencing Liepāja late into the night.
On 24 January, adventure seekers can explore Liepāja’s paradoxes on exciting tourist routes in Karosta and other neighbourhoods that have inspired events in the Liepāja 2027 programme, which visitors can enjoy throughout the year on their return to the Land of (un)rest.
The Liepāja 2027 programme “(un)rest” is built on five thematic lines that address issues relevant to Liepāja and the region as well as to Europe as a whole. More than 200 partners and curators have been involved in creating it, bringing together local cultural heritage, new work by international artists and public participation. In total, the programme plans more than 500 events, including exhibitions, concerts, performances, symposia and forums, and artist residencies, as well as new public space installations and new cultural tourism products that will strengthen the region’s international profile and local creative potential.
An ambitious programme of international cultural events awaits Liepāja in 2027. In the concert series “Greats at the Great Amber,” world-famous singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright will perform on 30 January. From 8 to 11 April, the Great Amber Concert Hall will host the Lithuanian opera-performance Sun & Sea, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Art Biennale, for which the Great Hall will be transformed into an artificial beach with 30 tonnes of sand. On 26 May, the internationally acclaimed Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons will visit Liepāja with the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig.
On 10 July, Liepāja will host Eurovision Young Musicians. From 9 to 15 August, the international choral music festival Europa Cantat 2027 will bring together more than 3,000 singers, conductors and music lovers from around the world in Liepāja. From 19 to 21 August, Liepāja Theatre’s international festival “Theatre in Close-Up” will present performances by theatres from the Baltic Sea region, along with talks, play readings and other events. On 18 September, Liepāja Theatre will open its 121st season with Against Elections, created in collaboration with the internationally acclaimed Irish theatre company Dead Centre, which will explore public participation in politically and socially significant decision-making.
The Liepāja 2027 programme will also offer new ways to discover the city’s urban environment. On 2 and 3 July, the former Liepājas Metalurgs steelworks site will become the venue for the festival “Farewell to Heavy Metal,” combining contemporary circus, street art, workshops and music. A special Liepāja edition of the Skaņu Mežs festival will feature experimental music artists from around the world. The same site will also host an international electronic music event in collaboration with the Berlin electronic music platform HÖR.
From 3 March to 28 November, the historic bank building at Teātra iela 3 will host “The Fabric of Reality,” the first solo exhibition in the Baltics by Japanese contemporary art star Chiharu Shiota. From 29 May to 15 August, the international exhibition “Locus Mundi,” created by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, will take place at Club Kursa, the Net House in the Kursa Quarter and Liepāja Railway Station, exploring Liepāja’s history, the city’s transformations and its place in global cultural processes. From 29 May to 25 September, the dry dock of the Tosmare Shipyard will host the interdisciplinary exhibition “Certain Uncertainty,” in which Andris Eglītis and other artists will enter into a dialogue with the historic industrial setting through large-scale works.
During the summer solstice, the project “Nordic Solstice” will bring together traditions, nature and contemporary creative practices. The eco-art and writing platform “Solarpunk Castle,” created by the association Ascendum in collaboration with the magazines Satori and Tvērums (Scope) and Liepāja 2027, will gather artists, writers, scientists and thinkers, while “Midsummer on the Farmsteads” will invite people to celebrate the festival (Jāņi) on farms in the South Kurzeme and Kuldīga regions. The Latvian Fund for Nature’s environmental discovery programme will offer a closer look at the diversity of nature, and a programme of traditional Nordic wellbeing practices on the Baltic Sea coast, created by the association “Latvju Pirts un SPA Asociācija” (Latvian Sauna and SPA Association), will focus on sauna culture and other wellbeing practices rooted in nature and tradition.
Sustainability and environmental education will also play an important role in the programme. In collaboration with the main partner in this field, AS “CleanR Grupa,” the environmental education concept ŠŪNA will be revived in Liepāja in a new form, with the participation of London Design Biennale grand prize winner Artūrs Analts, and on 17 July the “Nature Concert Hall” will visit Liepāja. On 28 August, the talks and food festival “At the Table of Happiness” at Liepāja’s Pētertirgus market will focus on the wellbeing of people and the planet, sustainable use of resources and the diversity of local produce.
Around 60% of the programme’s events are planned in Liepāja and 40% in the Kuldīga and South Kurzeme regions. The cultural tourism project “5K – Five Cultural Spaces, One Story” will connect the cultural spaces of Bārta, Nīca, Rucava, the Curonian Kings and the Suiti, inviting visitors to discover their traditions and contemporary expressions. Grobiņa will host the international Zenta Mauriņa Summer School, with a special focus on artists and writers with disabilities, while in Kuldīga Region participants in the international creative writers’ residency “Notes in the Margins” will create new works inspired by local cultural heritage and community stories.
Throughout the year, the programme will offer public engagement initiatives, educational projects, creative residencies, discussions, the Liepāja 2027 youth programme and the community programme “Being Neighbours.” From 1 to 6 June, the participatory programme “How to Tend a Community” will take place across Liepāja, with workshops, performances and co-creation activities that invite people to think of community as a vibrant, ever-changing process of relationships. From February to September, in the four events of the forum series “Agora of Values,” experts, artists and members of the public will explore peace, democracy, technological development and humanity’s relationship with nature. In collaboration with the Liepāja Education Board, the cultural education programme “ECoC ECHO” will be carried out in schools.
Young people will play an important role in shaping the close of the European Capital of Culture year: on 27 November, the Great Amber Concert Hall will host the youth festival “Institute of the Future,” bringing together fashion, music, dance and art.
You can explore the full “Liepāja – European Capital of Culture 2027” programme at www.liepaja2027.lv/programme-unrest
Until 9 November this year, event organisers have the opportunity to submit their cultural and artistic initiatives to the (un)rest Side Programme. Participants in the Side Programme will be able to add their events to the overall Liepāja 2027 events calendar. The programme does not provide financial support. Find out more about the (un)rest Side Programme.
Stay up to date with Liepāja 2027 news by subscribing to the newsletter.
The project “Liepāja – European Capital of Culture 2027” is implemented by the foundation “Nodibinājums Liepāja 2027”, the Liepāja State City Municipality and the official partners, the South Kurzeme Region Municipality and the Kuldīga Region Municipality. It is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture. The Liepāja 2027 programme is supported by its main partner in environmental education and sustainability, AS “CleanR Grupa”; its main partner in air mobility and international communication, AS “Air Baltic Corporation”; its legal partner, SIA “Sorainen ZAB”; its land mobility partner, SIA “Lux Express Latvia”; and its water transport mobility and international communication partner, SIA “Stena Line”. Media partners: VSIA “Latvijas Sabiedriskais medijs”, SIA “Žurnāls Santa”, SIA “Tvnet grupa” and AS “Kurzemes Radio”.
Kristiāna Paula Lībiete
Public Relations Specialist
Foundation “Nodibinājums Liepāja 2027”
Phone: + 371 22 355 771
E-mail: kristiana.libiete@liepaja2027.lv
www.liepaja2027.lv
The project competition “Manor House Hackathon,” organised by the foundation “Nodibinājums Liepāja 2027” (Liepāja 2027), has concluded. In it, eight cultural venues from the Kuldīga and South Kurzeme regions developed new ideas for bringing historic buildings back to life.
From 29 September to 1 October, representatives of Liepāja 2027 took part in an ECOC Echo project partner meeting in Chemnitz, Germany.
On October 9, 2026, in Liepāja, as part of the “Liepāja – European Capital of Culture 2027” programme, an open-air photography exhibition titled “One Day in Liepāja 1987–2007 – 2025,” which, through images taken in three different years, will reveal the life of the city and its people over the course of half a century.