When they are assembled, they talk Danish, German and English, but their true lingua franca is music. The FolkBALTICA Ensemble consists of around 50 young musicians from southern Denmark and the bordering German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The orchestra began at the annual folkBALTICA Festival, which takes place in mid May. The FolkBALTICA Ensemble is the festival’s youth orchestra, which breaches frontiers both geographical and musical, crossing between traditional and contemporary folk music. Violinist Harald Haugaard is artistic director at the folkBALTICA Festival and leads the ensemble, whose aim is to develop young talent and maintain and rejuvenate the folk music traditions in the border country. Tønder Festival is an active supporter of talent and the supply chain in folk music, and it has become a tradition that the FolkBALTICA Ensemble plays at the festival, giving both a concert in their own right and contributing to the big school concert for pupils at schools on both sides of the Danish-German border. Once again, Tønder festival’s audiences can enjoy the fresh vitality of this youth orchestra.