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The participants of International Hansa festival book Kaunas hotels in advance

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0300

Next year an International Hansa festival first will take place in Kaunas. This Monday, Kaunas Mayor Andrius Kupcinskas and his deputy Rimantas Mikaitis met Kaunas hotels owners to discuss the festival participants accommodation issues.

An International Hansa festival will be held on 19 - 22 May of 2011, during the traditional Kaunas city days. Every year, a member of Hansa cities union has been designated as the international center of Hansa days and it brings thousands of participants from the twin cities, wich present their local cultural, economical and social values.

Some cities delegations had already booked hotel rooms, but the most reservations hotels will receive from November.

„We hope that all delegations will book rooms in advance, but it is always a possibility that some of them will do it at the last minute. Our city shouldn't be expensive for festival participants, so it is very important that hotels would be well-meaning and wouldn't increase rooms prices", - mentioned Mayor A.Kupcinskas.

Tha head of Kaunas State Philharmonic Justinas Krepsta mentioned that International Hansa festival isn't an ordinary event, this festival is very important to it's artistic sense. „We strive to attract cultural groups to this festival as many as we can, so that the festival would be amazing for all. We all have to strive to make this celebration memorable", - said J. Krepsta.

The director of „Hanza Kaunas 2011" Darius Rumsas mentioned that usually feast participants come not only for festival. They stay more longer than three days to see the city and try some entertainment thus bring the financial benefits to the city's business industry.

New Hanseatic League was founded in 1980. It is an organization of cities, which are economically and politically active, seeking to collaborating and once belonged to the old Hanseatic League. It currently brings together 175 European cities from 15 countries. Kaunas is the only Lithuanian city belong to the international union the New Hanseatic League.

Published by Vilija Zukaityte.

Hansa Town Festival 2009

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0300

It is already for the fifth time that Kaunas, the sole Hanseatic Town in Lithuania, romps around cheerfully. The festival is devoted to the millennium of the name of Lithuania this time. On the base of Vytautas Church in the quay of Nemunas beside the old wharf, from the very midday, knights and dames walk around, schools of courteous manners invite to learn, dancing lessons, knight tournaments, puppet-plays, concerts and traditional pig racing are organised. Here peas are steaming in huge pans and steaks are roasted on spits and beer is foaming up freely; charming witches with their brooms propped up prepare divers herbal infusions and weave magical spell. On the concrete downhill of the far bank of the river, the stripe of millennium woven from colourful square pieces of board catches one's fancy.

In the quay, various small houses, where craftspeople set out their wares, sprouted up like in a real town. Here one can get woodworking tools, earthen pots, mugs, souvenirs, metalwork; seldom can you see a genuine smith after all... Beekeepers ply with the golden honey, the handy women of the town cry advertising their knitting, rag dolls, baskets, fur and bouquets of dried flowers. And the natural autumn dahlias... so beautiful like a gorgeous carpet!

In the midtown, medieval gallows, an apparatus for execution stand prepared. I wonder whether the middle ages were notorious for crimes. Anyways, the town seems to be friendly now, nobody is calling for punishment so far, the townspeople walk around peacefully, trooped together or with the families, sup the beer, and the little ones ride the horses. Thus next to the gallows on the stage, music is played, knight tournaments take place and guest performances are given. As it is fitting for a reputable town, a chapel stands in an honourable place where a comely young sister keeps house thoroughly. The townspeople who have sinned more or less must be willing to confess their real or cock-and-bull sins at the end of the day...

The celebration goes on! I've also been there, drank beer and mead, the drinks ran over my beard. Remember to come round tomorrow! Guests are always welcome in the Hansa town!

You are welcome to view the gallery of the festival of the Hansa town.

The Programme of Hansa Town Festival 2009

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0300

To view the programme Click here

Theatricalised Excursions arranged by “Our Odyssey”

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0300

1. The Old Town of Kaunas in the eyes of Klara
During the excursion, Klara, the daughter of the Kaunas marshal A. Masalskis, will conduct the townspeople to St. George Church where they will be able to hear stories about the builders of the church, the symbols in the interior and the hidden confessionals...
The townspeople will also be able to visit the inner courtyard of the monastery, to take a bricked up street in and have the opportunity to have a look at life of the young ordinands. The excursion will take place at 12 p.m. on August 22. Duration: 1 hour

2. The burgomaster's merits for Kaunas
Ona, the wife of the burgomaster of Kaunas, will tell the townspeople about the development of the town and about her husband the burgomaster's merits for the town. The visitors will also be able to hear about the Market square, the longest bridge in the world, Svirbigala and the great floods. The excursion will take place at 3 p.m. on August 22. Duration: 1 hour

3. The presidents and bohemia of the temporary capital
Adelė, a townswoman of the temporary capital, will speak about life of the presidents, bohemia and ethical and moral principles of the time. The excursion will take place at 11 a.m. on August 23. Duration: 1 hour

4. Notability of Kaunas
Marcelė, a sister of the well-known poet Maironis, will talk about her brother, friends and neighbours. You will learn the history of Kaunas Archcathedral Basilica, have an eyeful of the interior and visit the mausoleum of Maironis and the crypts. The excursion will take place at 2 p.m. on August 23. Duration: 1 hour

The price of one excursion is 15 litas per person. We offer a special ticket to you: 40 litas all four excursions in.
Registration Tel: 20 78 79, 8 698 03091, M.K.Čiurlionio 15, Kaunas. Information: www.musuodiseja.lt , www.travelmedus.lt

General Voluntary Meeting

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0300

04-08-2009 at 6 P.M. in the old Nemunas wharf, a general voluntary meeting will be held. Everyone is welcome to participate.

Marketing in Hansa Town Festival 2009

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0300

Please, refer to these contacts for marketing in Hansa Town Festival 2009.
Daina Urbaitienė
Mob. tel. +37068455998
El.paštu daina.urbaitiene@hanzakaunas.lt

A new institution for the organisation of “Hansa Kaunas 2011“ festival

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0300

Kaunas has been entrusted with the organisation of the international Hansa festival and thus given the opportunity to become the capital of the Hansa towns in 2011. The local government is planning to establish a new public institution for organising the festival.

The establishment of such an institution was accepted by the board of the town of Kaunas. "Hansa Kaunas 2011" is expected to be competent in representing Kaunas properly, organising the events and coordinating its course, receiving foreign delegations properly and allowing presentations of the guests.

It is already several years that the public institution of "Hansa Kaunas 2011" organises Hanseatic Days.

Source of information for Kauno diena.

How is Kaunas going to surprise Europe in 2011?

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0300

Kaunas has already started preparing for the international Hanseatic Days that are going to take place in 2011. It is expected that approximately 250 thousand guests will visit the international festival and our town.

These are not made-up figures. "They are based on the experience of the festivals that have taken place in Tartu town in Estonia and in Veliky Novgorod, Russia", says Darius Rumšas, the director of the public institution "Hansa Kaunas 2011". This is the institution to get the heaviest workload of in organising the event.

Rumšas expects for help of the local government and the townspeople. "This is not only the deal of the town. We are going to seek to make the international event the deal of the state", says Rumšas.

In the great hall of the local government on July 3, the participants of the enlarged meeting of the work group gathered for the organisation and coordination of the festival "Hansa Kaunas 2011" shared their impressions and experience obtained this year in Hanseatic Days in Veliky Novgorod.

"Each delegation was conducted by two or three young volunteers who helped in organising the festival. It is very important for us to make certain of this as well". Though the director of the public institution "Hansa Kaunas 2011" imparts his apprehensions that they are not sure whether they will manage to gather the proper number of people. According to him, the festival is a perfect opportunity to present Kaunas as an inviting town that allows having great time. "Plenty of the participants and the visitors proves the undoubted benefit both to business and to the town", says Rumšas.

The meeting was also attended by the representatives of both the local government and business. It is great advantage that an increasing number of people learn about the event. We receive many opinions and also new suggestions that will help preparing for the festival are made", says the vice-mayor Rimantas Mikaitis, the conductor of the work group.

Currently, a preliminary map of the events and a provisional plan is prepared. Regulative works on the exact places and implementation of particular projects are going to start in autumn.

This autumn, in a conference that is going to be held in Piarnu, Estonia, Kaunas will be to present the process of preparations for the event. The thirtieth international Hanseatic Days are planned in Piarnu in 2010. It is there that Kaunas will be given over the flag of the modern Hansa union that will flutter at home in 2011.

Kaunas is the sole city in Lithuania that can be proud of being the member of the well-known union of Hansa towns. The organisation prospered already in the middle ages and now it unites 167 towns of fifteen countries. The representatives gather together in one of the towns every year. The schedule of the event is drawn up for the period until 2036.

The information source: Kauno diena.

Will the medieval spirit be felt is the air?

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Clanger of the sward of the medieval knights, the garden of witches, numbers of tradesmen, performances of musicians and artists and thousands of guests - this is the picture drawn by the organisers of the international Hanseatic Days to take place after a couple of years.

Regard of the government needed

"The worst thing is that the government are unconscious of the dimension and the importance of the event", admits Andrius Žiurauskas, one of the organisers and directors of the festival. He fears whether they will have managed to prepare for the festival properly by 2011.

A special work group formed by the local government have discussed the conception of the event and analysed the experience of other cities. The group reckoned up the approximate funds required and evaluated the benefit that the event may bring to Kaunas. The public institution "Hansa Kaunas 2011", who organise the festival, introduced the location of the events to take place on May 19-21, 2011.

The organisation prospered already in the middle ages and now it unites 167 towns of fifteen countries. The representatives gather together in one of the town every year. In 1995, Kaunas was granted the right to organise the international festival of the union of the Hansa towns in 2011.

In 2005, the international Hanseatic Days took place in a Kaunas' twin town Tartu, Estonia. Referring to the experience of Estonians, the organisers are expecting the representatives of more than a hundred towns of the Hansa union and about 250 thousand other guests to come. According to the preliminary calculations, the international event will cost approximately 1.7 million litas. The organisers have no doubt though that Kaunas will also make great profit of it.

"Only after a visit to such a festival in another country do our politicians realise that the event is not only important to the city but to the country as well. Thus attention and mutual understanding are the things that we are really lacking so far", admits Žiurauskas.

Appreciates other experiences

"In such festivals, the medieval spirit is felt in the air. The effect is incomparable", says the town councillor Justinas Krėpšta, who participated in the international Hansa festivals in Sweden and Estonia. The councillor hopes that the event to take place in Kaunas after two years will put the city on the map.

It is for three years running that the Hanseatic Days have taken place in Kaunas. There is a certain input and experience to base on. Thus we are on the right course", assures Krėpšta. He says he has no doubt that Kaunas is also able to organise an attractive feast for people and the Meddle Ages is a splendid idea for the theme.

At the beginning of June, the Hanseatic Days are organised in Veliky Novgorod, Russia. Several politicians of the city, representatives of the local government administration and the organisers of the event in 2011 are going to come to the festival. "When they return they share their experiences and we hope that this will encourage our government to attend to the organisation of the festival", says Žiurauskas.

Interested not only in the festival

Kaunas must present itself to the guest of the festival as an attractive city where one can have a pleasant time. According to the director of "Hansa Kaunas 2011" Darius Rumšas, the first task to get on with is to prepare the sites for the festival.

"Almost all the events will take place in the Old Town. Some of the building here not only look glumly but they also endanger people. As the motto of the festival is "Retrace, revive, be proud" thus the foreign guests of Kaunas may wonder why we do not renew the buildings", observes Žiurauskas.

The endless litigation for the former Jewish hospital in A. Jakšto Street fend the town off from restoring the collapsing building that spoils the view of the city. In Muziejus street, the organisers would like to open the vegetable market but what occupy the place there is burnt storehouses.

We are worried about the building on the corner of Muitinės street and Aleksoto Street handed over to the Lithuanian Academy of Fine Arts. The corner of the derelict building overlooks the Town Hall Square which will be the centre of the festival events. It is the place where the pavilions of other Hanseatic Towns are planned to be located. In the very hall, the 24-hour informational centre of the festival is going to be established.

There is no definite plan how the renovations are going to be carried out so far. "If the reconstructions of the Kaunas castle were performed during the festival we will lose much", warns Rumšas.

The local government is not able to tell whether the problems will be tackled before the international Hanseatic Days yet. If the litigation for the Jewish hospital persists the building may collapse before the decision is made. We cannot do anything now", observes the vice-mayor Rimantas Mikaitis, the head of the work group. He engaged to see the reconstruction works done on time.

Next year, the approaches to the castle and the paths of Confluence Park are planned to be lightened by the funds of the regional dimension of the European Union. Unfortunately, there is little hope that the building belonging to the Academy of Fine Arts will receive the town guests looking better than now.

"If the town decides to organise a festival everyone must help creating it: from the journalist to the sweeper. However, it seems now that the festival is only the concern of the organisers", maintains Žiurauskas.

The information source Kauno diena.

Kaunas becomes the capital of merchants

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0300

The local government has already started preparing for the international Hanseatic Days to take place after three years.

Darius Rumšas, the organiser of Kaunas Hanseatic Days, notices that such a grandiose festival requires starting to prepare for it immediately, and adds that in 2010, the council of the Hanseatic Towns' Union will converge in Kaunas for a conference. What we will have to do is report the final programme of the festival of the year 2011.

It was already in 1992 that Kaunas presented its proposal to organise the Hanseatic Days that traditionally take place in a different town of the union every year.

"The Hanseatic Days usually gather up to eight thousand representatives of about 120 towns. It is not necessarily the middle ages that the events may carry back to. Last year, for instance, there was an economical forum held and the youth Hanseatic Days organised in the German city Lippstadt", related Rumšas.

A former Kaunas town councillor Justinas Krėpšta, who has participated in Hanseatic festivals, says that the budget devoted to the Hansa festival by other towns is approximately 1.5 million litas. Thus, according to him, it is time to start searching for the sponsors and thinking of guest accommodation.

The organisers hope that they will also manage to raise such an amount of money. Therefore, they are planning to open a special Internet site for the Hansa festival.

Yesterday, at the meeting with the mayor Andrius Kupčinskas, it was decided to gather a special work group and to establish a special public institution for the Hansa festival.

The mayor maintais that, as in 2011 the European Basketball Championship will take place in autumn, the town will gain considerable advantage from organising the Hanseatic Days earlier joining the the festival and the Days of Kaunas City in May. In this way, the championaship and the latter festivals will not have to compete with each other.

Several hundred years ago, Kaunas was a city where rulers and merchants from Western Europe used to make a stop. In 1441-1532, the office of the Hanseatic merchants was operated here.

From the office, wood, grain and wax were exported to Western Europe and a shipyard was open in Aleksotas. Kaunas is, and always have been, the sole town in the country that belongs to the Hanseatic Union.

The information source Kauno diena.

"Kaunas Hansa 2008": Surrender the Middle Ages!

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0300

Saturday and Sunday are the days when the medieval spirit will be felt in the air in the Old Town of Kaunas. The townspeople are welcome to join - dress up in ancient clothes, frame up, charge and punish, taste exotic food and drinks, make pots of clay, learn the old good manners and learn Latin.

Blood, knights and pigs

It is already for the fourth time that the Hanseatic Days will remind us the times when our town was a member of an influential merchant union and when it experienced the time of the greatest prosperity. The festival will be concentrated in four places of the Old Town: in the Hall Square, in the quay of Nemunas, in the square in front of Vytautas Church and in Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities.

The old Hanseatic Town will be built next to Vytautas Church in the quay of Nemunas: the church, the knight area, craft yard, medieval playground. In the midtown, medieval gallows, an apparatus for execution, where every sinner will get his or her retribution, will be standing prepared.

Žiurauskas shortly introduced the programme of the festival as follows: "There is going to be much blood as townspeople has demanded it at all times. We will again be decapitating, chopping hands, burning and hanging. In the tournaments, the knights will demonstrate their strength, marksmanship and dexterity and the medieval puppet-plays, dance and music concerts, fire-shows and stuntmen performances will amaze the townspeople and the guests".

Piglets will be watching for their running start of the traditional medieval race, a restaurant of the authentic medieval food only made on fire and eaten without cutlery will be open. The cheerful monks of "The Hospice" will urge that one involve himself in gaieties and taste all the hard drinks brewed by them. The dispensary of the magic elixirs will also invite to come over. Here one will able to try healing drinks of various consistencies.

The illiterate to be birched

The "staff" priest of the improvised church will sell indulgences, i. e. the writing of remission of sins, and relics - bones and sculls of "the saints" and the "saint" nails. Pressed by armour weighing several ten kilos, the knights will fight in tournaments with the armament forged by them.

The garden of witches will wile mysteriously and the stakes of torture will rise up. "Last year everyone enjoyed sitting on the stakes. This year we inflamed the conditions - the stakes are going to be tapered and I can assure that sitting on them is not going to be comfortable. This experience will remind one of a historical punishment rather than of entertainment", as the director of the festival maintains.

In the quay of Nemunas, the medieval puppet-play "The Professor's New Adventures" will be staged. Here the erotic and marauding Punch's adventures will be continued.

In the Old Town, the medieval games will be organised and schools of good manners will invite to learn. Here the old teaching methods will be applied and thus the rod will help to transfer knowledge to the head. In this school both children and grown-ups will be able to learn and those through with the course will get certificates.

Foul-mouthed wretches and tattlers not tolerated

The opening celebratory walking, which will unite politicians dressed up in medieval clothes, business people, representatives of the academic world, actors and townspeople, will turn off the Town Hall to the mart.

The mart will be located next to Vytautas Church. It is not mere traders that will offer the freshest yield here, but it is the farmers themselves. "The farmers now will aim at having a good time rather than selling much", says Žiurauskas. At the beginning of the festival, the mayor will set the market balance.

Everyone here will have the opportunity to pillory a person at fault and to whip out his or her opinion of any issue. "You will be able to speak his piece on the government, police, the organisers of the festival and the neighbours. We will not only tolerate the foul-mouthed and gabblers", quips Žiurauskas. Besides, the folk music will be played in the festival as well.

University and Church join

"Accompanied by the medieval music, elegies, epitaphs, epigrams and panegyrics will run. At the university chamber, trials will be held and the townspeople will become "suolininkai", i.e. the equivalent of the present-day jury, and will help the judge to make decisions", as Anna Dorothy Vessel, the widow of a rich Kaunas merchant Hanus Naugard, nowadays introducing herself as Rima Kubiliūtė, the representative of VU KFH, relates it.

Registration for the excursion will be carried out in the quay of Nemunas by the gate of the Medieval Town. The festival of this year has also incorporated Church; during the Hanseatic Days, the 600th anniversary of the first parish in Kaunas will be commemorated. For this reason, in Kaunas Archchathedral Basilica the congregation will celebrate Mass. The clergy is also going to paticipate in the walking of the festival participants. Žiurauskas observes that the town celebrations never did without Church. The celebrations were arranged by the guild of trade people and the clergy together with the local government were used to running the whole show. Sunday evening is the time when the festival will be crowned by a spectacular show of lights and fireworks over the Town Hall, the building of which will then be illuminated.

Appeal to authenticity

"What we are distinguished for among other events is authenticity as we refer to history in organising the festival. We do not need to think of what to show in the festival. Everything is written in the chronicle of Kaunas, i.e. the way people lived and the way they celebrated; what you have to do is read and revive. This is what we have done by the instrumentality of historians", says Žiurauskas.

In the 15th century, the first office of the Hanseatic Guild in Lithuania was found. In spring, when the water of Nemunas flooded, the European merchants used to came to Kaunas and thus the marketing started. The town came alive and all the summer people could get goods brought from far countries.

The town had a "three-day stowage rule" in force; according to it, the merchants had to unload the goods from the ship and market them in Kaunas for three days. The merchandise was carried from the wharf to the market located in the Hall and to the store through the tunnels. Actually, VU KFH is directly related to the historical Hansa as a part of the faculty is established in a 16th century house that belonged to the German merchant Naugard; the substructure of the old Kaunas customs office remains in the university Sundial yard.

Preparing for international festival

In 2011, the international festival of the Hanseatic Union, which joins 163 European cities, will be organised in Kaunas. It is then that up to five thousand participators from the whole Europe will gather together; the representatives of the old crafts, singers and dancers will come here. According to Žiurauskas, the Middle Ages is the time of Hansa's greatest prosperity and it is the theme applied to third of all the international Hanseatic events. All that remains is what the city is interested in today. For instance, the city's achievements are subjected originally, artists of different spheres are introduced and concerts of the present-day music are arranged.

What Žiurauskas calls the most impressive passage of the international Hansa events is the festival organised in Tartu, Estonia, some years ago. The town then funded a part of it and several thousand students of Tartu University were dressed up in medieval clothes. This year, the Estonian representatives came to the international Hanseatic Festival organised in Salzwedel, Germany, and brought a huge colourful laboratory of ancient compounds and mixtures with them.

The director states that every year till the festival of the 2011th is like a repetition for them. They hope that until then all the universities in Kaunas and great part of the townspeople will join in the festival. Furthermore, he expects that there will be no spectators left and only the participators will remain.

The map of the events

1. The Town Hall - the centre of celebration. Here the opening is performed and after it the celebratory walking starts for the mart. When closing the festival, the Hall building is illuminated and the audience enjoys the spectacle of light and fireworks.
2. In the square in front of Vytautas church, the mart is located. In the ancient market, farmers sell the freshest yield. Here everyone has the opportunity to pillory a person at fault. A vat serves as the stage for "Vox populi", and for whipping out one's opinion of any issue. And also, the musicians are those who keep sunshine here.
3. In the medieval town, the yard of the ancient crafts and a stall of indulgences are open, perpetrators are punished publicly and stakes arise, pigs are racing and the garden of witches where the magic elixirs are sold invites one to come. And the knights fight armed authentically. The medieval puppet-plays are staged and the school of good manners is found.
4. Visiting the German and Latin square (Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, Muitinės st. 8), one can have a view of the cellars of the old town. Here a trial of the 16th century is being held and Latin is taught theatrically. Accompanied by the baroque music, the ancient poetry - elegies, epitaphs, epigrams and panegyrics - will be read ardently.

The information source Kauno diena.

Hanseatic Towns’ Union revives in international festivals

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0300

Kaunas turning to a medieval town may become a new original attraction for tourists.

In 2011, the international festival of the Hanseatic Towns' Union will be organised in Kaunas. However, the town councillor Justinas Krėpšta, who took part in the council-board of the Hanseatic Towns' Union in Osnabruke, Germany, last week, is convinced that the festival requires starting to prepare for it immediately.

Each year in a different town

Krėpšta says notes that the international festival organised in a different town each year is the second most important European cultural programme after the European cultural capital. The festival promotes tourism and popularises the new routes of the cultural tourism. What is more, as soon as the influential councils of the Hanseatic Towns' Union, which at the moment unites 156 member-cities, approves of the cultural project, the European funds are practically guaranteed.

Since Kaunas reactivated its membership of the Union's council two years ago, it was entrusted to organise the Hanseatic Days in 2011. The fact that at the moment the council is selecting the candidates for organising the festival of the 2030s proves the festival to be grandiose and of high-budget. Krėpšta together with other councillors of the Hanseatic Union debriefed the representative of Tartu city. Krėpšta concludes that the budget for the festival makes 1.5 million litas and representatives of 70 towns participating together with the cultural entertainments and cultural inheritance.

Prosperous medieval towns united

The Baltic Sea consolidated the coasts and united people living there for centuries. In former times, the routes of Slav trade people, Vikings and pirates used to cross here. The Baltic States not only developed by exchanging goods but also by sharing cultural values.

Hansa is a commercial-political union of North German, Prussia and Livonia of the 13th -17th centuries. Hansa influenced the Baltic region hundreds of years in the Middle Ages. In the 15th century, the union comprised 160 towns in 10 countries. Kaunas is the sole city in Lithuania that can be proud of being the member of the well-known union of Hansa towns.

Though Krėpšta believes that the Hanseatic Days to be organised in 2011 is a perfect chance to attract tourists and promote the country to European extent, still it is not enough to write an impressive scenario with an eye to fascinate foreigners. It is also important to float the Hanseatic idea among the townspeople.

Spectacle to be staged on the water

This year is the first time that the medieval festival "Hansa Kaunas 2005" was organised in the town. The event is special for reminding of the glorious days of the medieval Kaunas. The organisers' company "Pramogos Jums" seized the opportunity of the repair of Aleksotas Bridge by offering attractions along the section of Karaliaus Mindaugo Avenue. Unfortunately, this year the festival revealed that the townspeople have too little knowledge of the Hansa Union and its relation to Kaunas.
The company "Pramogos Jums" is determined to fill the informational gap. It is planned to organise the second festival that is going to be of greater dimensions. According to Darius Rumšas, the director of the company "Pramogos Jums", the event should take place in Nemunas Quay beside Vytautas Church. Here the medieval town with craft yards will spring up, the townspeolpe will be offered ancient entertainment and attractions. The purpose-made spectacle staged on the water will crown the festival; the scenario of the spectacle is known already, i.e. pirates attack a trading ship. In the evening, the section of Nemunas along the whole Old Town will be illuminated by the fire show.

The information source Kauno diena.