Positivus Finds Safe Place To Anchor

The local flag with its upside-down anchor suggests Salacgriva might not be a safe place to put down, but Riga-based Positivus Music is happy that it’s the right home for its new festival.

It may be useful that the new event – which is named after the company that founded it – has the national AB.LV bank as a main sponsor because it only pulled 3,000 per day, but Positivus marketing manager Elina Bernate believes that’s a strong enough foundation to build on for the future.

Given that neither Latvia nor the neighbouring Baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania have any tradition for outdoor summer music festivals, let alone the camping variety, Bernate says the organisers were particularly encouraged that most of the festival-goers stayed overnight at the tent site.

She says the company chose the small 6,000 population seaside town of Salacgriva, where the River Salaca flows into the Baltic Sea at the Gulf Of Riga, because it wanted to be near a beach and the Northern Vidzeme region is one of the country’s most beautiful locations.

The site is on an open sports ground that’s been getting wider use since the town built a new stadium for the local soccer team.

The acts helping Bernate and the festival organising team to start with a Positivus attitude July 27-28 included Stereophonics, James, Badly Drawn Boy, The Concretes and Brett Anderson, supported by some of Latvia’s top local talent.