Finland — Events
Helsinki Festival
The massive Helsinki Festival is designed to showcase Finnish and international performing and creative arts, drawing about 300,000 people every year to enjoy a full program of classical and contemporary music, dance, theater, popular and world music, cinema, and art exhibitions. The festival, founded in 1968, takes place in a unique tented venue in the city center. One of the most popular aspects of the festival is the Night of Arts when the city streets, parks, churches and galleries are given over to dance groups, orchestral groups and buskers.
Helsinki City Marathon
Finland’s popular annual Marathon event attracts thousands of runners from around the world, most probably because the race follows a particularly scenic course along the coastline in and around Helsinki.
Helsinki Baltic Herring Fair
Helsinki’s oldest traditional event is dedicated to the humble herring, Scandinavian staple, which has been sold and eaten at the end of the fishing season each year at a fishy fair in the city’s Market Square for about 200 years. Visitors are astounded at the number of different ways this delicacy is served up. Try it salted, pickled or marinated, on the spot or to take away.
May Day (Vappu)
Finns know how to have fun, and when they party they do so seriously. The best party of the year in Helsinki, particularly for students, is the May Day celebration. Although neighborhoods throughout the city celebrate to herald the arrival of spring in their own way, the main event takes place in Market Square and along the Esplanade, where crowds gather in the early evening of 30 April (Walpurgis Night) to watch the statue of Havis Amanda adorned with a white cap.
Wife Carrying World Championships
In the Wife Carrying World Championships held annually in the town of Sonkajärvi, men carry their wives on their backs over an 820 foot (250m) course comprising obstacles and even a water jump. The winner is awarded his spouse’s weight in beer. Several types of carry may be practiced, namely piggyback, fireman’s carry or Estonian-style, where the wife hangs upside-down with her legs round her husband’s shoulders, holding onto him waist. Participants must pay a EUR50 registration fee.
