Delegation from Rheine to visit at the summer festival in the lithuanian twin town Trakai
Trakai/Rheine. With many visitors from all over the country and representatives of the friendly cities, the Lithuanian city Trakai celebrated its summer festival at the weekend. The highlight was an impressive laser show over Lake Galve, with the historic island of Burg forming the perfect backdrop in the evening.
But the terrible war that is taking place just a few hundred kilometers away on the territory of Ukraine was also a topic at this meeting – even if only in passing. The representative of Trakais Ukrainian twin town Ivano Frankiwsk addressed it in dramatic words at a reception on Sunday: “A terrible war is raging in our country, the most terrible war in Europe since the Second World War. We are fighting for peace and for democracy. We will continue to fight, we will survive and we will win this war,” he said to the applause of the numerous guests.
The city Trakai had welcomed its guests on Friday with a boat trip on Lake Galve. A jazz band entertained the representatives of the six twin towns of Trakai. “Our partnership is the bridge to your countries,” said Trakais mayor Andrius Satevicius in his speech.
The highlight on Saturday morning was the traditional procession with the delegations of the twin towns from the town hall to the festival stage in front of the Inselburg. From Rheine deputy mayor Fabian Lenz and for the town twinning association the chairman Reiner Wellmann and his representative Irja Erben had traveled to Trakai. The entire city was closed on Saturday, because numerous visitors from all over the country had come to Trakai for the traditional event.
However, the absolute highlight was the laser show against the backdrop of the island castle Burg late Saturday evening. The city Trakai renounces for some time the burning of fireworks, above all for ecological reasons, on the other hand also before the background of the war happening in the Ukraine, which is present in Lithuania with its borders to Belarus and the Russian enclave Kaliningrad at any time. On the stage in front of the castle Lithuanian greats of the entertainment industry performed the whole evening and especially the young audience celebrated enthusiastically.
