It started a few days ago, but the Helsinki Festival is now in full swing and welcoming visitors from around Europe and elsewhere until September 4.
The Helsinki Festival is a broad-based international arts festival, featuring music, dance, theater, art, cinema, circus performers and more. The focus is somewhat on on Finnish talent but there is a definitive international reach. The festival emerged from the Sibelius Week celebrations of the 50’s and the 60’s, that celebrated the music of Finnish composer Sibelius. Since then, they’ve really expanded though, and this year they will even feature a sort of Almodovar Marathon, where they will screen all the films of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, which can be either a good thing or bad thing, I suppose, depending on how much of an Almodovar fan you are. Myself, I’d probably find a good pub somewhere and enjoy a little Finnish food.