Fans line up to watch the 2024 European Disc Golf Festival. Photo: Marika Salmi / DGPT Europe

“And now, we head to the most epic first tee in disc golf.”

Organizers of the European Disc Golf Festival hosted PDGA staff this past week in Tallinn, Estonia on the hallowed property of the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.

A year ago, the Local Organizing Committee, led by Director of Operations Matthias Vutt, hosted the European Championships. This year, the EDGF is on the Disc Golf Pro Tour Elite Series. In 2025, the event will hold PDGA Major status.

Major is how the event team is handling every little detail of the event, which has quickly risen to the Major level and gathered praise every step of the way.

The first tee is one of grandeur, underneath the towering sound arch where history and pride echoes throughout the historic grounds.

Hole 1's tee at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. Photo: Marika Salmi / DGPT Europe

Matthias Vutt, EDGF Director of Operations, looks out on Hole 1.

“It’s a really special place for Estonians,” Vutt said a few days before the event began as final preparations, both from the staff of nearly 100 as well as the players, were underway. “Next year, we will have the Estonian Song Festival two weeks prior to the Major so there will be around 30,000 singers underneath this sound arch and around 100,000 peopl on the hill singing Estonian songs.

“It’s a really special place and I hope that the foreign players that come here really feel it, whether it’s on the first tee or somewhere else with all the smiling people. Hopefully, we can get this emotion from the players as well.”

The Tallinn Song Festival Grounds was a key location for the Singing Revolution, a series of events over a four-year span from1987 and 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The sense of pride can be felt throughout the property, which has hosts the Estonian Song Festival every five years as well as international acts such as Michael Jackson, Metallica, Elton John, Queen, Lady Gaga, and Green Day, among others.

And very quickly, it’s become a site for disc golf, both in terms of competition and celebration.

The first tee is the beginning of the course, but it’s far from the first experience on the grounds for both players and spectators.

Fans line up to watch the 2024 European Disc Golf Festival. Photo: Marika Salmi / DGPT Europe

Every person is checked in and receives either an NFC-tagged wristband or badge. This enables organizers to gather data that they will use to further enhance the experience for everyone.

Players then move through a welcome area, where they are photographed and recorded for a moving introduction that will display on a large LED screen below the first tee. There is a lounge area, a stretching and recovery area, and warm-up areas before they make their way to the first tee and the course.

For fans, the experience begins immediately as well.

“Estonia is a very digital country, and we are at the forefront for IT solutions, so we tried to do everything digitally,” Vutt said. “With the NFC chips, every time someone walks in, we know where they are, how much time they spend there, where they’re walking and so forth.

“Once fans buy a ticket, they started receiving information about player tee times, vendors in the area, when Kristin goes on the course. When you open the app, there is a 3D map that shows where groups are located and how to get to them.”

The course is a true arena-style experience. No fans will be on the actual course as every hole is in its own section of the property and fenced off, resulting in a  true 360-degree view of the action. Inside those sections, each event sponsor has a dedicated hole, which leads to clean branding throughout the course. There are vendors, food options, concerts and plenty of other attractions to create a true festival experience.

Fans line up to watch the 2024 European Disc Golf Festival. Photo: Marika Salmi / DGPT Europe

“You will be 15-20 meters from the players constantly,” Vutt said.

Another target for the event: Carbon neutrality.

Countless mechanisms and processes are in place by event team to reduce the carbon footprint to zero.

“The target for us is to be the first or one of the first events in disc golf to be carbon neutral,” said Silver Kutt, a longtime organizer and creator of Rally Estonia who joined the LOC this year. “After the event, when we have the carbon value finalized, we know how many trees that we need to play in an area that is not a forestry area to create a new forest so that our CO2 value will be zero. That is the target.”

There are a number of green activations in place, including power produced by windmills or solar power in Estonia, reusable plastics throughout the property from tee signs to fencing, the promotion of environmentally friendly transportation options that abound in the city of Tallinn, and more.

For example, spectators will pay a 1-2 Euro deposit when purchasing food and that money will be returned when they turn in their dishes to one of several locations throughout the property.

Kutt said that the event is expecting to plant 1,000-plus trees after the data is analyzed. That data will also be used when making plans for 2025 and beyond.

“Every little thing is calculated – it’s crazy,” he said. “After the event, we will know the values and set a target for next year on how much we can reduce our CO2 footprint.”

That’s the thing that has the team in Estonia on the rise — analyzing data, attention to every little detail and a team structure to allow every box to be checked.

Data and feedback are at the top of the list for the organizers. Course changes were implemented for the 2024 event and more are on the way as the team is working with the city of Tallinn to expand the space outside the fences of the Song Grounds.

"I can only see it getting better, which is kind of crazy but it's already really, really great, but I'm excited to see what they do next year," — Missy Gannon, 2024 EDGF Champion

It’s the reason that Estonia will see an A-Tier, a DGPT Elite Series and a PDGA Major on the same property in just three years’ time.

“Hopefully, this motivates the younger players here to push more, to also be able to step up to this amazing first tee in a few years,” Vutt said about what this event means to Estonia. “When we started this, we already had a five-year plan. It’s no secret that we want to host the World Championships here as well. So right now, it’s step two and we have already confirmed step three with the Major so now let’s see what follows after that.”