By establishing the Cēsu Award fund, the brewery Cēsu alus supports Latvian song and dance traditions during the year of the XXV Nationwide Latvian Song and the XV Dance Festival. Cēsu Award is a programme aimed at giving financial support to one of the song or dance ensembles, folk ensembles or choirs registered in Latvia, which with their active participation during the campaign, can win a cash prize worthup to 10 thousand lats for the development of the respective song or dance direction and the promotion of culture in Latvia or even outside it.

The song and dance ensembles have the opportunity to winthe cashprize – Cēsu Award– by applying and justifying their preliminary plan with regard tothe promotion of the song/ dance cultural development in Latvia with the help of money obtained.

Eva Sietiņsone-Zatlere, Chairman of the JSC Cēsu alus Board: “Beer and songs, and the harmony of dance are cultural values long rooted within Latvian traditions and folk-songs. The campaign Cēsu Award is our dedication to the preservation and development of Latvian heritage – all Latvian song and dance ensembles have the opportunity to think over how they can develop the movement of the respective direction in our country or popularise it outside the borders of Latvia. We believe that among the 40 thousand participants of the Song and Dance Festival,as well as the ones that have not yet participated, there are lots of good, creative and ambitious ideas, which up to now might have lacked justthat little bit of financial support to become a reality. The campaign Cēsu Award is a way to jointly popularise the strength and beauty of our songs and dance, while simultaneously maintaining the longevity of Latvian traditions over decades of generations.”

The mechanism of the campaign is based on the special design can series of Cēsu Premium – For songs and For dance – the most popular beer brand of Cēsu alus. From the 22nd of April two types of design beer cans are available on the market. The sales results, which are counted for each type – songs and dance – separately, are made by beer lovers.During the campaign, from 22 April to 15 July, 0.01 LVL from each litre of the special design can series of Cēsu Premium will be donated to the Cēsu Premiumfund. The total amount of the award depends on the sales results of cans. The maximum available amount of the award is 10 thousand lats. It will be possible to follow the sales results on the website www.cesupremija.lv. The results will be updated on a weekly basis.

The song and dance ensembles submit their projects on the campaign’s websitewww.cesupremija.lv, where in the format of video or audio, they talk more about their willingness and plans to promote the cultural development of the respective direction – songs or dance. The aim of the project might be, for example, to renovate the premises for rehearsals of ensembles so that also other local ensembles could use them, to organise song/ dance festivals in the particular region, or to attend a competition outside the borders of Latvia in order to popularise the Latvian song/ dance culture across the world.

The winner of the campaign is to be determined in two stages. The sales results of theCēsu Premium design series cans – For songs and For dance – sold during the campaign will determine the winner either in the direction of songs or dance. The most sold design cans of the particular direction will allow one ensemble to winthe cash prize. The winner (ensemble) of the respective direction will be defined by online voting on the campaign’s website, which will display all the applications that comply with the regulations of the campaign.

More detailed information about the campaigncan be found on: www.cesupremija.lv.