Culture - thisisFINLAND

Hold on to summer: Sunny Flow Fest memories in Helsinki last through the autumn and beyond

Flow Festival is an extravaganza, the highlight of the summer for multitudes of music fans in Finland. With interviews and a photo show, we attempt to bottle its essence so we can make the summer last longer, even as autumn is increasingly in the air.

Arts & culture Film

Radical liberty: Finnish director Alli Haapasalo’s movie Girl Picture lets girls be girls

In Girl Picture, three teenage girls say and do what they want – without suffering any retribution. While directing the film, Alli Haapasalo realised how incredibly rare that kind of freedom is in movie plots. We talk with her about making films in Finland.

Arts & culture Visual arts

Island and mainland: At Helsinki Biennial, art inspires viewers and makes summer linger longer

We jump on a ferry to the lush island of Vallisaari to visit the 2023 Helsinki Biennial and meet a couple of the artists. (Lots more photos in the slideshow at the end of the article.)

Restaurant Day

A Finnish invention allowing anyone to set up a restaurant for a day

Arts & culture Music

Music in the Finnish capital: The Flow must go on

Finland loves summer festivals; there’s at least one in almost every city and town. Flow Festival, a massive music event held in Helsinki in early August, is the urban festival.

Life & society Universities

What’s the deal with the overalls you see university students wearing in Finland?

They’re a trademark of student life at Finnish universities: Durable overalls in various bright colours, decorated with imaginative patches and badges, contribute to a sense of community.

Number of Unesco World Heritage sites in Finland

Source: Unesco

Arts & culture Webpick

50 Finnish summer music festivals to go to in 2023

During the long summer days and midnight sun, Finland offers hundreds of festivals. The experts at Music Finland pick 50 recommendations, from classical to pop, folk and beyond.

Arts & culture Dance

Dance House Helsinki provides an inspiring haven for performers and audiences

Once just a dream, Finland’s new dance centre, Dance House Helsinki, has lived up to its promise since opening in February 2022. The long-awaited venue brings the dance community together, and also features contemporary circus and other performing arts.

Business & innovation Business

Filming in photogenic Finland

Finland offers a stunning stage for movies, documentaries and series, no matter what kind of setting is required – from cityscapes to wilderness, and from lakes to archipelagos. In recent movies, Finnish cities have even played the roles of Paris and Seattle.

292 votes

Amount of votes Finland got when winning the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest