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Urmas Karner, the president of the Esto fair, said the weeklong event, which has never been held in New York and coincides with the Columbus quincentennial festivities, will include an Estonian film festival, the unveiling of a new mural by Estonian-born painter Mark Kostabi, a Baltic trade fair, and a performance of John Philip Sousa marches by the Estonian national symphony.
What happens every four years, draws 15,000 people from all over the continent for heated political debates by day and concerts and parties by night, and takes place in 1992 in New York City at Seventh Avenue and 33rd Street during the first full week of July?
If you said the Democratic National Convention, you're wrong: That's the second full week of July.
It's Esto '92, a worldwide festival that for more than two decades has celebrated the culture of the emerging democracy of Estonia, one of the three Baltic states that recently broke free from the former Soviet Union.
The Estonians - coming from around the world but mostly from the United States and Toronto - have booked every available room in the 1,750-room Ramada Hotel Pennsylvania, formerly the Penta, for July 4-11.
But at first, not everybody was waving the Estonian colors of blue, black and white.
The Ramada, across from the Madison Square Garden complex, will be the media center for thousands of reporters descending on the city for the Democratic confab. The convention won't start until July 13, but there was concern that the Estonian festival would conflict with the Democrats' plans for advance news conferences at the hotel.
"We're respecting their sovereignty," said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Anne Reingold, explaining a kind of detente under which pre-convention media events can be staged at other sites.
Urmas Karner, the president of the Esto fair, said the weeklong event, which has never been held in New York and coincides with the Columbus quincentennial festivities, will include an Estonian film festival, the unveiling of a new mural by Estonian-born painter Mark Kostabi, a Baltic trade fair, and a performance of John Philip Sousa marches by the Estonian national symphony.
(Copyright Newsday Inc., 1992)