Given Finland's small population, the number of summer music events the country hosts almost seems implausible, with nearly two dozen major events happening in June — and five over the Midsummer holiday alone.
Like everything else, festival ticket prices have continued to rise, with some events charging well over 200 euros for a multi-day pass. But promoters have found people are even willing to pay premiums for extras — maybe because festival season only comes once a year.
Yle News offers a glimpse into what's in store this summer, with a list of major — and minor — upcoming festivals (in chronological order).
Sideways
People familiar with performers like South Korean DJ Peggy Gou, UK dance music outfit Jungle, the UK singer-songwriter Bat for Lashes and Irish post-punk outfit Fontaines DC, should check out the many other acts that are scheduled to perform at Sideways in Helsinki.
This year, the festival — which has drawn thousands of people for nearly a decade now — will be a three-day event, held on 13-15 June. Sideways transforms the area around Helsinki's Ice Hall into a multi-stage "medium-sized, relaxed" event, according to organisers.
A one-day ticket to Sideways starts at 109 euros, while passes for all three days start at 189 euros.
Nummirock
The Midsummer weekend's Nummirock metal festival is a heavier affair. The preliminary lineup includes groups like Kerry King (Slayer's founding guitarist's project), Finland's Insomnium, Thy Art Is Murder from Australia, US-based Shadow Of Intent and Swiss folk metal outfit Eluveitie, as well as several others.
Set by the Nummijärvi lake in South Ostrobothnia, Nummirock will take place on 19-22 June.
The festival site is about an hour's drive from Seinäjoki. Nummirock will again offer a camping area at extra charge, with organisers instructing head-banging campers to carry all the equipment, food and drinks they'll need — as well as plenty of warm clothing.
Nummirock offers several ticket packages, with prices for one day starting at around 84 euros, two days for 125 euros and all four days coming in at 195 euros. However, there are also a number of "premium upgrade" options available, too.
Provinssi
About a week later, the Provinssi festival will be held on 27-29 June in Seinäjoki. Formerly known as Provinssirock, the three-day event now offers pop as well as rock acts.
This year's headliners at Provinssi include the Italian group Måneskin, who among other things won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021, UK rock outfit Bring Me the Horizon, Käärijä (Finland's ESC runner-up last year), Finnish duo PMMP as well as many other domestic and international acts.
Ticket prices for adults range from 135 euros for one day to 239 euros for all three days, with VIP options available at extra cost. Provinssi is also open to kids between the ages of 7 and 12 (when accompanied by a grownup), with single-day children's tickets available for 40 euros.
Ruisrock
Known for being Europe's second-oldest rock festival — and Finland's oldest — Turku's Ruisrock started booming music across Ruissalo island in 1970.
This year the festival will be held on 5-7 July, featuring plenty of hip hop, electronic and pop acts.
Artists performing on the first day include US DJ duo The Chainsmokers, American singer-songwriter and rapper Don Toliver, British rapper-songwriter J Hus and many others.
For the next day, Ruisrock has so far announced UK club music artist Romy (a vocalist from the band xx), Sub Focus (Nick Douwma), as well as "Finland's most-listened to artist," ibe, and more.
For Sunday 7 July, Ruisrock announced artists including PMMP, British chart-topping rapper Stormzy, Finnish singer-songwriter Behm and Brazilian DJ/producer Alok.
Tickets for Ruisrock range in price from 135 euros for a single day up to 240 for all three days.
The seaside festival also has VIP and camping packages available at extra cost. Organisers have said more acts will be added to the lineup as they are confirmed.
Ilosaarirock
One of Finland's biggest festivals, Ilosaarirock — which has roots dating back to 1971 — drew nearly 70,000 people to the city of Joensuu over a three-day weekend last summer.
Ilosaari will be held on 15-17 July, with this year's lineup mostly featuring domestic acts. Headliners on Friday include rock veterans Hassisen Kone as well as pop acts Antti Tuisku and Chisu.
Artists scheduled on Saturday include early 2000s pop rock outfit Haloo Helsinki!, singer-songwriter Ellinoora and British-Norwegian DJ/producer Alan Walker, among many others.
Sunday's line-up features Finnish acts like rap duo JVG, singer-songwriter J. Karjalainen and the symphonic metal band Nightwish.
Ilosaarirock's three-day VIP ticket packages have sold out. However regular passes to the whole festival start at around 200 euros, two-day tickets cost around 170 euros and single-day passes are priced at around 120 euros.
Slot Festival
A new summer music event called Slot Festival will take place in Turku this year.
Held by the medieval Turku Castle on 19-20 July, Slot will feature a number of nostalgic acts from abroad as well as Finland.
On Friday July 19, artists include the late-90s British girl group Sugababes, US rock band Hanson (who made MMMBop a worldwide hit in the 90s as kids), and Finland's Scandinavian Music Group & Ikuiset ystävät.
The next day, Slot has scheduled Swedish 90s group The Cardigans, US musician Jake Shears (co-vocalist in the early 2000s pop group Scissor Sisters) and Danish-Norwegian dance-pop group Aqua (known for their 1997 earworm Barbie Girl).
There are a number of ticket packages available for the Slot Festival (site in Finnish), with two-day VIP tickets starting at 205 euros. A regular one-day pass costs 105, while tickets for both Friday and Saturday are priced at 159 euros.
Odysseus Festival
That same weekend, the Odysseus Festival will feature "adventurous music" at Helsinki's Culture Factory Korjaamo for two days.
More than 30 acts are scheduled to perform at Odysseus, including Norwegian duo Lost Girls, trumpet player Verneri Pohjola, Swedish-Australian group Ghosted and Finnish singer-songwriter Islaja.
Odysseus, in its fourth iteration, is organised by We Jazz, which held a number of shows around the capital last November and December.
Odysseus will be held on 19-20 July in and around Korjaamo in Helsinki's Töölö district. A two-day adult ticket is priced at 109 euros, while children (grown-up accompanied) under the age of 18 get in for 55 euros. There are also one-day tickets available.
Weekend Festival 2024
Weekend Festival will be a two-day affair featuring dance, rap and pop artists on 2-3 August in Espoo.
Tucked away at the Vermo event park in the eastern end of the city, Weekend boasts a long roster of DJs, including Tiesto and Nicky Romero from the Netherlands, Finland's very own Darude, Boris Brejcha from Germany — plus many more, and that's just the first day.
The festival resumes on Saturday 3 August with DJ Alesso from Sweden, Finnish DJ Orkidea, and Dutch-Moroccan DJ R3HAB.
But interested EDM fans should act quickly, as most tickets for this summer's Weekend Festival had already sold out by the time of this article's publication.
Dark River Festival
Billing itself as "Finland's most spontaneous and individual little big metal festival," Dark River will be held for the 20th time in Kotka on 8-10 August.
Fans will bang heads with headliners Warmen on Thursday, Exodus on Friday and Katatonia on Saturday, along with more than 20 other bands over the three-day event.
Tickets for Dark River start at around 60 euros for one day, while passes to the whole festival run at just over 100 euros.
Flow Festival
While not the oldest, Flow may be the country's most well-known abroad. In its 20th iteration, Flow will take place in Helsinki's industrial district Suvilahti on 9-11 August.
This year, Flow is offering three days of pop and indie acts, but also DJs and experimental endeavours. The festival, which also features art exhibits, is open to young children on Sunday as well. Last year Flow attracted nearly 90,000 people.
Among around 150 foreign and domestic artists, Flow's headliners this year include US pop singer Halsey, R&B star Janelle Monáe, UK singer-songwriter RAYE, British artist Fred again.., UK singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, UK 90s fashion pop outfit Pulp, as well as The Smile (featuring Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and jazz drummer Tom Skinner).
Three-day passes to Flow start at 249 euros, and around 200 euros for two days (depending on which ones). Single-day tickets range between 129-159 euros. VIP, or "gold" passes are priced at 399 euros.
This long list of festivals is hardly complete, as there are many, many more summer events planned around the country.
Tell us in the comments where you would like to go.
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