Concerts of famous foreign bands Bastille and Clean Bandit at the festival Young Like Vilnius
On 25 July, the capital of Lithuania will be rocked by the music festival Young Like Vilnius, dedicated to the 700th anniversary of Vilnius. For one day, Vingis Park will host an exclusive stage where Lithuanian pop and classical stars will perform new and time-tested works, and the evening will culminate with performances by the famous foreign bands Bastille and Clean Bandit.
The programme will feature a variety of music styles
On St Christopher’s Day, the festival Young Like Vilnius will showcase different music genres. Alongside classical musicians, there will be a wide range of duos from some of Lithuania’s most popular music stars, as well as the world-famous bands Bastille and Clean Bandit. Inga Romanovskienė, Head of the Vilnius City Tourism and Business Development Agency “Go Vilnius”, hopes that this year’s festival will attract a large number of listeners of different music genres to Vingis Park to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the capital city together. Last year, the festival attracted around 45,000 viewers.
“For the second year in a row, we have been organising the festival “Young Like Vilnius” with the aim of celebrating Vilnius’ birthday twice a year – on 25 January, when Vilnius was first mentioned in written sources, and on 25 July, the day of St Christopher, the patron of Vilnius. This day gradually becomes a beautiful tradition and I hope it will continue in the future,” says Inga Romanovskienė,
Performances by World Famous Stars Bastille and Clean Bandit
This year’s Young Like Vilnius festival will feature concerts by two foreign bands. One of them is the world-famous Bastille. Although the band was only formed in 2010, they have quite a history with Lithuania. Bastille has performed in our country, and a decade ago, in Vilnius and Kėdainiai, they filmed a music video for the song “Things We Lost In The Fire”. Many fans around the world know the lyrics to the band’s songs “Good Grief” and “Of the Night”, and their biggest hit “Pompeii” has received over 730 million views on Youtube. The musicians do not shy away from talking about difficult topics in their songs, which are unusual in popular music. Their songs often reflect global current affairs, themes from classical mythology and themes from iconic films. Festival guests will undoubtedly hear tracks from the band’s latest album “Give Me the Future”, which has been critically acclaimed worldwide.
Bastille will be joined by the world-famous band Clean Bandit at Young Like Vilnius. Formed in 2008, they boldly push the boundaries between electronic, dance, classical, rhythm and blues and pop styles, and use motifs from composers such as Mozart, Beethoven and Dvorak. The band members write their own songs: they write the music, the lyrics and even direct the music videos.
Clean Bandit has two tracks that have crossed the symbolic one billion views on Youtube, and the song “Rather Be”, recorded with world-renowned artist Jess Glynne, has won a Grammy Award and has been sold more than 10 million times worldwide. In 2016, the band released a single with Sean Paul and Anne-Marie called “Rockabye”, which stayed at the top of the UK Top 10 for nine weeks and also charted in other European countries. Clean Bandit has now bettered the result set 22 years ago by Wet Wet Wet’s “Love is All Around”.
In 2018, Clean Bandit earned two Brit Award nominations at the prestigious UK Brit Awards for “Solo”, recorded with world-renowned singer Demi Lovato. The song went on to reach number one in the UK chart. In total, the band has released 9 tracks that have made the top five in their home country, beating world-renowned artists Bruno Mars and Adele.
Unexpected Lithuanian duets and artist collaborations
One of the main events of Vilnius’ 700th birthday will start with a festival that will unite classical music fans. The orchestra of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, conducted by Ričardas Šumila, will be joined by Lithuania’s most famous opera soloists Edgaras Montvidas, Ieva Prudnikovaitė, Aušrinė Stundytė and Kostas Smoriginas. The festival will also feature duets by some of Lithuania’s most popular musicians prepared especially for this event. Benas Aleksandravičius, Monika Liu, Jessica Shy, Igoris Kofas (Lemon Joy), Vaidas Baumila, Aleksandras Ivanauskas-Fara and other well-known music artists will take to the stage. They will perform both well-known and popular songs and new interpretations of legendary works. The evening will culminate with exclusive concerts by foreign stars Bastille and Clean Bandit. For more information about the festival programme, visit www.700vilnius.lt
The free festival Young Like Vilnius is one of the most important events of 2023, celebrating the 700th anniversary of Vilnius. The anniversary programme was initiated by Vilnius City Municipality and is curated by Go Vilnius, the official business and tourism development agency of Vilnius City.