Double Capital Jubilee Reflected in Helsinki Festival’s Juicy Programme

This year, Helsinki celebrates 200 years as Finnish capital as well as being World Design Capital. To honour the double jubilee, the city’s main annual cultural event, Helsinki Festival, introduces an extra juicy programme that caters for all tastes and ages.

The programme crosses over several cultural fields, and consists of music from classical to world music and rock, modern circus, dance, theatre, visual arts, film and community events.

This year’s festival takes place from 17th August to 2nd September. Some 250 events are featured, around three quarters of which are free. Last year’s reveller numbers reached 190 000, and this year’s festival is not expected to do any worse.

Try these event picks on for size:

Night of the Arts

Night of the Arts is definitely one of the best nights out in Helsinki: all over the city, culture and people meet in unusual places, in unexpected ways. Art takes over the streets as cultural venues throw their doors open until late.

This year’s Night of the Arts takes place on Thursday 23rd August. The complete programme is published in August, but a major event has already been confirmed:

Dominoes
Everyone can participate in building a giant domino route! This is large-scale, to say the least: the 10,000 falling blocks cause a chain reaction which will run around the city. Imagine that! See more.

World Design Capital Events

World Design Capital Helsinki is represented at Helsinki Festival with two interesting approaches to culture and design:

Tomás Saraceno
Having created quite a stir in the international art world, Tomás Saraceno draws open-mindedly from architecture, technology, space research and social theory.

At Helsinki Festival, his theme is spiders: the room-sized installation, “14 Billions” (Working Title), is a giant Black Widow’s web built out of ropes.

In addition, Saraceno creates a whole new piece of art in Helsinki in which spider webs collected from a geographically wide area and models based on them meet. See more.

Boutique
A white gallery space is transformed into an overall work of art, as fashion designers collaborate with visual artists. Featuring big fashion names such as Paola Suhonen and Minna Parikka, gallery halls morph into a shop-in-shop where artists place the works they have created together. See more.

There’s even a concert to go with it. 

Modern Circus

Unbeknownst to many, Finland has developed quite a reputation on the international modern circus scene, and the genre is well represented at Helsinki Festival:

Cirque Éloize
The world premiere of a staggering spectacle will be held in Helsinki! This Canadian group is one of the leaders in combining circus, comedy and technology. See more.

Circo Aereo
This performance set in a small village in Lapland, on television, in tabloids, at an immigration centre and on a spaceship is a multi-art stage production which freely diverges in different directions. See more.

Cirko Pikkolo
Cirko Pikkolo is a brand new circus festival for children and families! The Cirko Center will be full of different circus experiences from workshops to performances. See more.

Music

Music is represented in all shapes and sizes at Helsinki Festival. Here are a couple of special occasions worth seeing:

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Sellars, Bill Viola: Tristan & Isolde
A truly unique and sumptuously visual production of Wagner’s classic work, a collaboration between conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, director Peter Sellars and video artist Bill Viola, will expand beyond the confines of the stage to take over the entire concert hall. See more.

Apocalyptica
The innovators of cello metal take over the Festival Tent. Originally a Metallica tribute band, Apocalyptica has developed into a full-blooded dynamic rock band and attained global success. Expect surprise guests… See more.

Dance

From solo performances to 100-people strong community projects, dance is an essential part of Helsinki Festival’s offerings.

Tero Saarinen Company: Scheme of Things & Vox Balaenae
One the best-known Finnish dancers, Tero Saarinen’s touching new solo premiers in Finland. Vox Balaenae, Voice of the Whale, reflects the primordial strength of nature as well as its alienation.

The first performance of the evening’s double bill is Tero Saarinen Company’s Scheme of Things in which six dancers explore the arbitrariness of relationships and recurring behavioural patterns. See more.

Festival Club

Every festival day excluding Sundays, the festival living-room, night club and meeting place presents a free programme. Pop in before or after shows or stay for the whole night. Enjoy music, films and discussions at the club and meet artists and friends. All Helsinki Festival Club events are free-of-charge.

The programme will be completed in early August. Age limit 18. The club is located here.

More on the Festival Club.


For more information and complete festival programme, please see Helsinki Festival.

Helsinki Festival media site.

Information on accommodation, restaurants, shopping etc. is available on the Visit Helsinki site.