RIGA, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The International Folklore Festival Baltica, which brings together traditional song and dance groups and ensembles from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, kicked off in Riga on Saturday.

The six-day-long festival in Latvia, which this year is the event's host country, started off with a singing get-together and an orienteering competition in Riga.

In the singing get-together event, over 1,000 folk-singers gathered on both banks of the city canal to communicate and interact through traditional music.

In the afternoon, around 300 folk-groups and ensembles took part in the festival's opening procession in downtown Riga to the tunes of traditional music and cheers from the crowd of onlookers.

The procession was led by an all-male folk-group from Latvia, followed by participants from the Baltic states, as well as other foreign countries.

The program of this year's International Folklore Festival Baltica includes more than 20 various events, which will take place not only in the capital Riga but also in Latvia's regional towns and villages. The festival will end on June 21 with Midsummer celebrations and ancient summer solstice rituals in various places of Latvia.