This literary evening has been part of the HeadRead literary festival since 2015. For eleven years now, young people taking their first steps in literature – or in creative expression more broadly – have appeared on our stage. It is worth recalling who performed at the very first Bright Young Things event.
Among them was Maria Koff (now Ehrenberg, b. 1998), today an actress at the Tallinn City Theatre, who entered the Estonian collective (sub)consciousness through Tanel Toom’s feature film Truth and Justice. Eik Erik Sikk, known as EiK (b. 2000), is now one of the best-known and most beloved young rock musicians in Estonia, having released his ninth album, lõputu festival last year, with influences from punk and alternative rock. Kaisa Kuslapuu (b. 1995) is likewise best known as a musician – as the vocalist, pianist and songwriter of the band Lonitseera – but it should not be forgotten that she won the Estonian Poetry Slam Championship in 2019.
As we can see, even the first cohort of Bright Young Things featured voices that have since become an integral – if not indispensable – part of our cultural life. There is no reason to expect this positive trend to change. So come and see and hear the young talents about whom you will soon be able to say: “I was there when they first started out!”
Taking the stage are Grete Leas, Patrick Lepik, Marie Ojamaa, Saskia Oolep, Elis Paugus, Ats Saukas, Matilda Angela Simson and Eleanora Tammann.