The newly built Neikenkalns' nature concert hall will allow you to enjoy the special aura in the joy of singing and power of song. This open-air stage is a new project in Latvia and highlights the heritage value of Dikļi being the origin of the tradition.
The nature concert hall is built as an amphitheatre. Its unique acoustic features are developed with a water mirror, wooden structures, greenery in the park, terraces, and slopes.
Next to the mound Neikenkalns there are impressive outdoor objects. In the „Silver grove crown“ there is the „Grove of sounds“, where both children and adults can play music and study sound on a xylophone, metallophone, wind-instruments, and bells.
The first Latvian singing festival was organised in summer of 1864 in Dikļi. The organiser of the festival was Juris Neikens – a famous writer, teacher, and priest.
He gathered six choirs with 120 singers in Dikļi; the choirs were coming from nearby parishes of Vidzeme. Later, the mound on which the festival was organised was called Mound Neikenkalns.
The first singing festival inspired the next in Bauņi, Rūjiena, and other places and soon turned in to the Overall Latvian Song Festival in Riga, in 1873. Nowadays, thousands of choir singers take part in the festival.