Events & Festivals

Tallinn with its stunning medieval centre, dating from 1248, and its thriving galleries, restaurants and bars is a must for the traveller. However for one week it is transformed into one of Europe’s most eclectic contemporary music festivals – the Tallinn Music Week, part of the Baltic nation’s festival season.

This year, the festival will go ahead in August, despite the COVID19 pandemic, although attendance at outdoor events will be restricted to 1,000 and to 500 for indoor events, in accordance with agreed restrictions. Estonia has had comparatively few cases of COVID19 – less than 2,000 with 69 deaths (as of 17 July). Information on whether you will need to self-isolate and quarantine can be found here.

Museums and galleries reopened on 12 May, with public drive-in events starting from 15 May and sport events from 18 May, without spectators.

Over recent years the concept behind The Tallinn Music Week has broadened out. Always seen as combining Eastern, Western and Central European contemporary music, it now also encompasses art, design and ideas, with the aim of stimulating the understanding of modern culture. Parallel to the music festival is a conference where speakers will debate all elements of the music industry, including its role in shaping our future society.

On average 35,000 music and art lovers attend over the week with an additional 1,000 executives from the music industry looking for fresh talent. There is a plethora of events to cater for differing musical tastes ranging from punk to pop, dance to metal and folk to contemporary classical music.

Tallinn Music Week

The centre-piece of the Week is the three-day music festival (27 to 29 August). This is a trully international event, in 2019 there were 21 performances at 10 different venues, with 170 artists from 28 countries including Estonia, Russia, Finland, the UK, Canada, Belarus and Sweden. There will also be some free events throughout the city, together with food and craft beer. A new location for TMW 2020 is the Nobel Hall in the historic Noblessner Foundry.

The aim of the festival is not only to share and promote cultural interests but to also make the event user friendly for its many visitors. To this effect all venues used will be within a short walking distance of the three main hubs: the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Telliskivi Creative Hub and the Port Noblessner.

For ideas on some quirky activities to get up to in Estonia, click here.

When is the Tallinn Music Week 2020

The 12^th edition will be held from 27 to 30 August. The central hubs will be at the Telliskivi Creative City and Port Noblessner.

Tallinn Music Week 2020 Programme

Details of performing artists will be released in June and will appear here.

So far confirmed artists include Iceage from Denmark, UK dark pop duo The KVB and Strange Idols, Latvia’s Tribes of the City, and Sylk from Ireland.

Local talent will include dreamcrusher!, MÖRT,  OLEN JONES, Tintura x Arno Tamm, SuureMammaRekkaPoisid and Argo Vals.

Other acts include: Grandmaster Corn (Finland), Tesa and Eschatos (both Latvia), Olimpia Splendid and Camilla Sparksss (both Switzerland), Sturle Dagsland (Norway) and Thot (Belgium).

Tallinn Music Week Tickets

Tallinn Music Week 2020 Festival Pass costs €65, and the Conference + Festival Pass is €175. You can purchase them via shop.tmw.ee. Additional information can be found here: tmw.ee/passes-tickets.

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Photo Gallery

For more information on Tallinn Music Week

For everything else you need to know about the Week, click here. Photos provided by the Tallinn Music Festival. Cover image: Argo Vals Band. Photographer Aron Urb