Planning to visit Finland? Maybe fancy seeing a circus or dance performance or two? As the sun melts away the winter’s snowdrifts, conditions are optimal for performing arts festivals and events. See what’s on offer!
The festival season in Finland begins in earnest around Midsummer, but for friends of circus & dance there’s a variety of interesting events happening from late April through May to mid-June. Here’s a short introduction to some of the upcoming festivals that have circus and dance programming.
All flavours of performing art in the old capital
Turku, the southwestern hub of Finland, is definitely a hot spot of circus and dance during late spring. A cavalcade of events kicks off in late April as Ehkä-production’s multidisciplinary Spring Roll festival takes place at Contemporary Art Space Kutomo from 20 to 28 April. The festival includes new dance and performance, poetry readings, concert, satellite exhibition, and a child-friendly music club.
Mental Airport is a new performing arts festival organized May 2–11 in Turku by Grus Grus Theater, bringing together its works. Departures, or performances, leave from five different gates around Turku. The performances on offer are united by multidisciplinarity, physicality, visuality, and the characteristic experientiality tied to the performance locations.
The sixth edition of Finfringe, 8–12 May, presents a huge variety of performing arts with shows and events to satisfy a range of tastes. Circus and dance are very well represented in this year’s programme, which includes magic, street circus, and clownery just to mention a few genres. The festival’s programme takes place in several venues around the city of Turku.
A couple of weeks later, 24–26 May, the focus will be entirely on circus with the fifth edition of Aura Company’s Radanvarsi Festival. As of this writing, the programme has not yet been released, but if the festival’s previous editions are of any indication, the festival will showcase local circus artists and a selection of Finnish and international guests. On the previous Saturday 18 May, the festival’s pre-event Kadunvarsi-etkot fills the Turku Market Square with street circus and musical performances.
During the same week there’s also an opportunity to see the graduating circus students of Turku UAS Arts Academy’s perform their degree works. The piece Grande Finale – The Five-Star Circus Show, inspired by Ancient Greek mythology, can be seen at the Arts Academy’s Sigyn Hall on Wednesday 25 May (two performances) and Saturday 29 May. The performance features tightwire-walking, cyr-wheel, aerial acrobatics, dance, and fire art.
West, south, east, north – pick your direction
So, a lot going on in Turku – but plenty of events in other parts of Finland as well! In Tampere, the Tampere Dance Current contemporary dance festival is held for the 27th(!) time during 21–26 May. The event brings together the nation’s top talents and offers an excellent view of the current contemporary dance scene and it is a remarkable showcase of outstanding productions, dance short films and street performances.
A great reason to visit Lapland before Midsummer is the Silence Festival held 6–9 June in the village of Kaukonen, Kittilä. The multidisciplinary festival’s programme consists of contemporary circus and classical music in a unique environment, as the festival events will be spread throughout different parts of the village on both sides of the Ounasjoki river. This year’s festival will feature four circus premieres that are commissioned especially for the event, with many works combining spatial design with music and circus.
Right after Silence you can head east to Kuopio – recently announced as the Dance Capital of Finland – where the largest and oldest dance event in the Nordics, Kuopio Dance Festival, will take place from 12 to 18 June. Founded in 1970, the event brings around 35 000 visitors annually to enjoy a variety of Finnish and international dance performances. In addition to the performances, the festival programme also includes courses, camps, seminars, and other side events aimed at professionals and dance enthusiasts.
If, on the other hand, folklore is more your cup of tea, why not visit Tampere during 12–16 June and check out the Pispala Schottische International Folklore Festival? The event features entertaining free concerts, fascinating joint programmes, spectacular indoor concerts, and a delightful evening dance event! In the festival several international artist groups also represent their own cultural heritage for festival participants and the audience.
And that’s not all! With many, many more festivals and events later in the summer, there’s definitely a lot to see and experience in the Finnish performing arts scene in the near future. For more interesting festivals, performances and other events happening in Finland, check out the festival listing and performance calendar on our website.