St. Bartholomew’s Fair 2020
Historic St. Bartholomew’s Fair took place at Vilnius Town Hall square on August 21–22, 2020. The fair celebrated for the 9th time showcasing reconstructed crafts, arts and guild traditions of the Late Medieval Ages and the Renaissance. Though the number of participating craftsmen was slightly smaller this year (60; the last year it was 70), but the Fair was flamboyant as never before. The backbone of the Fair participants as usually consisted of Vilnius‘ municipal Traditional City Crafts program members – galleries and workshops.
The flags of Vilnius craftsmen guilds fluttered over their tents, all craftsmen wore fancy historical costumes, medieval music sounded, medieval soldiership, games and dances were demonstrated. Production processes of these crafts were performed: old toys, tin casting, Gothic ceramic, linen textile, belt winging, wooden replicas of historical weapons, coinage, bookbinding, baking of Lithuanian rye bread and Jewish bread chala.
The St. Bartholomew’s Fair is certificated as Lithuanian national heritage and maintains traditions of crafts and city’s culture. This revived festival is valuable as the part of intangible cultural heritage for strengthening the cultural contents and significance of Vilnius Historic Center – UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The St. Bartholomew’s Fair was supported by the Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture, Lithuanian Cultural Council and Vilnius City Municipality.