thisisFINLAND

Helsinki’s Flow Festival: Great for vegetarians

Flow Festival is known for more than music; it’s also about food – and there’s also plenty for vegetarians to enjoy. But you don’t have to wait for the festival weekend, since almost all the dishes we sample here are on offer all year round in Helsinki.

Arts & culture Film

Finnish documentary builds dialogue, not division

Ongoing refugee-related issues continue to polarise politics and public debate in Europe and elsewhere. Documentary director Elina Hirvonen’s film Boiling Point seeks to bridge the gap by encouraging conversation.

Arts & culture Festivals

Finnish festivals: Our picks for the rest of the summer

Music festivals play an essential part in the Finnish summer, and the pace doesn’t slow down as the season progresses. Whether your favourite music is tango, rock, classical, jazz or some other genre, the great number of festivals ensures that there’s bound to be something you like.

Arts & culture Visual arts

Modern women: Finnish art in an eventful era

Scandinavia House in New York formed the starting point for a show of four Finnish painters, all of them women, whose careers coincided with cultural and political transformations. The paintings later continued to Stockholm, and subsequently returned to Helsinki as part of a larger exhibition.

Life & society Society

Finland’s quirky love for saunas

The Finnish sauna is getting a makeover as new venues offer creative takes on the traditional steam bath. Here’s a guide to some pretty awesome saunas.

Arts & culture Music

HIM @ HAM: Photo farewell in Finland

The charismatic and the crude: As Finnish love-metal band HIM starts its farewell tour, Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) shows exclusive photos. See several of them here.

Life & society Environment

Jubilee park protects Finnish treasures

Finland’s 40th national park, Hossa protects lovely lakes, wild forests and fascinating prehistoric relics. It first opened in 2017, just in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Finnish independence.

Life & society Webpick

American-based Finnish journalist talks healthcare

Anu Partanen, a Finnish journalist living in the US, speaks about her experiences of healthcare here and there, in a Public Radio International interview.

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