Line-up for Liet International 2018 XXL

In less than 2 months, at Wednesday 23 May 2018, the 12th edition of Liet International will take place in Leeuwarden-Ljouwert, in Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands. Home of the Frisian song festival Liet and birthplace of Liet International. We are very pleased Liet International 2018 XXL is part of the activities during LF2018, where Ljouwert/Leeuwarden and the whole region of Friesland is cultural capital of Europe in 2018.

On 23 May 15 acts, instead of normally 9 or 10 acts, from different regions in Europe will perform their song in different regional and minority languages. With several languages that are represented at this year’s edition for the very first time. This are:

  • Luko Reinders, winner of Liet 2017, the Frisian song festival.
  • Inger Karoline Gaup & band, winner of the Sámi Grand Prix 2018.
  • Afro-Carib Ensemble, this band performs in Sranan Tongo.
  • Billy Fumey, singing in Franco-Provençal from the region Franche-Comté.
  • Evgenia Udalova, singing in the Komi language, a Uralic language.
  • Familia Caamagno, this band performs in Galician.
  • Gerda Stevenson, this pair sings in Scots.
  • Jenne Decleir, singing in Antwerp Flemish.
  • Nastasia Zürcher, this pair sings in Galician.
  • Pira, this band performs in Armãn/Aromanian, a Romance language.
  • Tangura, this pair sings in Udmurt, a Uralic language.
  • The Rowan Tree, this band performs in Cornish.
  • Whyte, this pair sings in Scottish Gaelic
  • Zaman, this band performs in Bashkir, a Turkic language.

These 14 will be accompanied by the winner of Liet 2018, which takes place only 10 days earlier, on 13 May.

The song festival for regional and minority languages Liet International is a Frisian (north of the Netherlands) initiative and was organised for the first time in the capital of Friesland, Ljouwert/Leeuwarden in 2002. Since 2006, the festival travels around Europe and since 2008, under the patronage of the Council of Europe. Liet International attracts each year a lot of media-attention – from BBC to Al Jazeera – and grew to one of the biggest events for the promotion of minority languages. In 2017, the latest edition of Liet International took place in Kautokeino, Sápmi, in the north of Norway.

You can find more information on LF2018 and all the activities that are taking place here: https://www.friesland.nl/en/european-capital-of-culture