thisisFINLAND

Finnish university project seeks to understand video game culture

With the increasing popularity and impact of video games on today’s cultural landscape comes the need to study and analyse them, too.

Arts & culture Cuisine

Food first: Finnish festival cuisine emphasises sustainability and artisanal touches

The recipe for the perfect bite? Sustainable, local ingredients turned into world-class artisanal dishes, served with a smile in a laid-back festival setting.

Life & society Quality of life

My happy place in Finland

Four expats in Finland tell their stories and reveal how living there contributes to the way they view and experience happiness.

13%

of Finnish forests are protected

Source: Discovering Finland

Life & society Nature

Spending an idyllic week in a Finnish national park, on a shepherding holiday

In several of Finland’s national parks, grazing sheep and cows help maintain traditional landscapes. Holiday-goers can enjoy a week surrounded by natural beauty while looking after the animals.

Arts & culture Finnishness

Visit a scenic Finnish lake essential to the country’s cultural legacy

The shores of one picturesque lake were home to a community of Finland’s most significant artists in the early 1900s – a cultural powerhouse whose legacy and influence is still vibrantly alive.

Business & innovation Technology

NASA and Finland’s Nokia get ready to test 4G networks on the moon

NASA’s IM-2 mission, bound for the moon in late 2024, will have Nokia communications network equipment onboard. It’s part of the American space agency’s plan to develop a range of technologies that will help land astronauts on the moon again (scheduled for September 2026).

Arts & culture Webpick

Get to know the Finnish contenders for a spot at Eurovision 2025

Six acts are competing to represent Finland in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest. They range from alt-pop to metalcore.

Business & innovation Innovation

Made in Finland: Meet the designer of the iconic Snowflake reflector, which popularised a life-saving innovation

Kalervo Elias Suomela merged form, function and fashion in the classic Snowflake pedestrian reflector. That’s how his story became intertwined with one of Finland’s most successful and beneficial inventions.

200

Number of nights the Northern Lights are visible in Finnish Lapland in a typical year

things you should and shouldn’t know