For Finns, Summer Means Festivals

The first festivals kick off well before Midsummer, also known as Juhannus (St John's Day), which fell on June 19 this year.

In early June, the emphasis was on classical music, with events in the southern towns of Naantali (May 31-June 12), Loviisa (June 3-6) and Tampere (June 3-7), the latter two focusing on Sibelius and choral music respectively.

Up north in the small town of Sodankylä, the Midnight Sun Film Festival (June 10-14) presents movies around the clock in tents and other venues. This year's director guests included John Boorman (UK), Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran), Robert Guédiguian (France), with musical guests such as Alamaailman Vasarat and Cleaning Women.

On June 12, the first of the big rock fests, Provinssirock, took over the south-western town of Seinäjoki. This year's biggest names includde Australia's Nick Cave, Iceland's Emiliana Torrini and UK bands Placebo and Editors. As with all the major rock festivals, international stars were interspersed with domestic favourites such as Children of Bodom, Kolmas Nainen and an offbeat choice: 64-year-old actor/singer Vesa-Matti Loiri, star of the classic Uuno Turhapuro comedies.

Also before the main vacation season was the 10th annual Fiskars Folk Festival (June 13), a laid-back mostly free event in an art colony near Karjaa. Fringe stars such as punk legend Pelle Miljoona, folk guitarist Mikko Perkoila, blues-garage band Honey B & the T-Bones and children's theatre troupe Hattutemppu performed at a lakeside dancehall, cafés and other venues around the village.

The next day marked the start of the 24th biannual Lahti International Writers Reunion (June 14-16), a round-the-clock celebration with panel discussions and readings open to the public -- along with a traditional drunken midnight football game. This year's international guests at LIWRE included A.S. Byatt (UK), Philippe Claudel (France), Shimmer Chinodya (Zimbabwe) and Jayne Ann Phillips (USA).

On Midsummer weekend, including Summer Solstice on June 21, the whole country basically becomes one big festival. Those who remain in the cities can get a taste of the traditional rural Midsummer with events at Helsinki's Mustikkamaa and Seurasaari islands, Tampere's Viikinsaari or Turku's Ruissalo.

The latter is best known for Ruisrock (July 3-5), the granddaddy of Finnish rock festivals, which began the summer after Woodstock. American hard rockers Faith No More and Slipknot head up this year's bill. This is also a chance to check out Finnish metal (Stratovarius and Viikate), hip-hop (Don Johnson Big Band and Asa) and artsy rock/pop (Ismo Alanko, The Crash, Rubik and Husky Rescue).

(Kajaanin runoviikko) Further east that weekend, there was a much quieter scene at Words and Music in Kajaani (July 2-6), the nation's oldest poetry and literature event. This year's themes were the Kalevala and 'national author' Aleksis Kivi, celebrated in drama, recitation, dance and discussions.

July's most internationally renowned events are in Pori, Savonlinna and Kaustinen. The Pori Jazz festival (July 11-19) now rarely features jazz musicians among its headliners, who this time included rockabilly king Brian Setzer (ex-Stray Cats), Raphael Sadiiq (ex-Tony! Toni! Toné!), Italian electronica/bossa-nova wizard Nicola Conte, American rappers De La Soul, nu-soul chanteuse Erykah Badu and Welsh pop crooner Duffy. On the jazzier end, there were fusion stars Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller, as well as Finnish keyboardist Iiro Haarla, who first gained recognition in her late husband Edward Vesala's band.

(Soile Tirilä) Pori draws a slightly older demographic than the rock festivals, yet a slightly younger one than Savonlinna Opera (July 3-Aug. 1). The medieval Olavinlinna Castle provides a perfectly dramatic setting for classic and cutting-edge operas, from an in-house production of Lucia di Lammermoor to Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci by Italy's Teatro Massimo.

The Kaustinen Folk Music Festival (July 11-19), in a small town between Vaasa and Oulu, has over the past 42 years offered an increasingly international array of roots music. Building on the local Ostrobothnian pelimanni tradition, this year it also spotlighted world-music stars such as Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, the China Opera and Dance Drama Theater National Instrument Orchestra and members of Värttinä. Allen, best known for his work with Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, replaces Mali's Toumani Diabaté, who was unable to attend because of a family illness.

The Baltic leg of this year's Tall Ships' Races stopped off in the south-western port city of Turku for three days beginning July 23. About 20 large sailing ships docked in the River Aura en route from St. Petersburg to Klaipeda, Lithuania. Most were open to the public, with nearly half a million visitors expected.

Etnomusiikin ystävät jammasivat vielä kesällä 2009 Billnäsissä. (Faces Etnofestival) On the cusp of July and August, the Faces Etnofestival took over an old ironworks in Billnäs, near Fiskars and Pohja. Finland's most multi-cultural summer event attracts faithful annual visitors from all over the country and abroad, many of whom come early and stay late in a tent village nearby. Along with music, dance, film, theatre and food from all over the world, there is a fabulous children's village with lots of hands-on activities, from face-painting to vine-swinging.

In early August -- all too soon -- schools and factories begin to reopen and many head back to the big towns. There is still plenty going on culturally, though. The Tampere Theatre Festival (August 3-9) this year offered nine international and 16 Finnish performances. There were native-language performances from the three Baltic States, plus others in Arabic, German, French, a Sicilian dialect and one in English by a French troupe.

Flow Festival is set in a century-old power plant. (Vilhelm Sjöström) Those in Helsinki in August were spoilt for choice as the Helsinki Festival (Aug 13-31) furled itself over the capital region with hundreds of events. There were sub-festivals such as the ultra-hip Flow Festival (Grace Jones, Kraftwerk, Lily Allen), the sophisticated Huvila Tent series (Lou Reed & Laurie Anderson, Wilco, Concha Buika, Joshua Redman and many Finnish stars), domestic improvisation at Viapori Jazz on Suomenlinna and Art Goes Kapakka, which brought a wide array of free performances into pubs and restaurants.

The festival -- and perhaps the whole festival season -- reached its peak with the Night of the Arts (Aug 21), an all-night extravaganza of events in every imaginable genre -- and plenty of unimaginable ones, too.

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