Events take place both in large cities and in tiny villages and in nature. Some of them can only be called creative: participants can compete in lifting their own wives with their hands, throwing mobile phones, or imitating guitar playing without a guitar in hand.
Many Finnish festivals can boast worldwide fame. The opera festival held in Savonlinna fortress is considered one of the best of its kind. Thousands of chamber music fans come every year to the tiny village of Kuhmo, which has a few hundred residents. Connoisseurs of high culture also do not miss the Luosto Сlassiс festival: classical and chamber music is performed there outdoors with a very interesting acoustic effect unique to the tundra.
As Travel.ru notes, festivals can be not only musical. A huge number of people come to get acquainted with Scandinavian culture in Rovaniemi during the summer solstice. Finland is also famous for family festivals and various events for children.
In terms of tickets sold, the Helsinki City Festival, held for two weeks in August, traditionally leads. In second place is the opera festival in Savonlinna. Third is the jazz festival in the city of Pori. The top five are rounded out by the folk music festival in Kaustinen and the chamber music festival in Kuhmo. In terms of attendance in 2007, the maritime festival in Kotka surpassed all, gathering more than 300,000 spectators and participants.
About 2 million people visit Finnish festivals annually. However, the number of tickets sold does not exceed 700,000 - this is explained by the fact that many events have free admission.
To navigate the extensive program of Finnish cultural events, a full catalog in Russian has appeared on the website www.festivals.fi. In most cases, festivals take place in small towns and villages and attract huge numbers of spectators, so it is worth taking care of purchasing tickets and comfortable accommodation in advance.