Comment|The steamy excess and absurdity of the Huvila tent and Juhlaviikiko are now a memory, writes culture journalist Aleksi Kinnunen.
When The Huvila tent, descriptively called the festival club in its beginnings, went up for the first time in Tokoinranta 29 years ago, Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the Helsinki Juhlaviikiki seemed to have enough money Roy Mänttärin in addition to the giant tent, for the most special projects.
I don’t just mean Waltar’s death metal symphony (“a hybrid of classical, rock, techno and Wagnerian menace with operatic soprano, rap and death metal soloists”) or by Raoul Björkenheim “heavy metal poetry” opening procession for 60 musicians.
The descriptions are from the program book of the 1995 holiday weeks, which I keep as a relic of the young EU-Finland everything is possible utopia. The catalog, which resembles a collection of essays brought to life for overdrive, weighs almost a kilo according to Lidl’s fruit scale.
The grandeur of the opus’ up-and-coming and international pathos is at once exhilarating and embarrassing. Friedrich Nietzsche mentioned repeatedly. Ismo Alanko writes poetry. For Ministry of Sound’s club night, a busload of 40 people, including fakirs, is promised. For the night of the arts, it says: controlled chaos.
“Our time will later be described by the concepts of diversity and extravagant individuality”, director Salonen envisions in the introduction like a fanatical oracle.
The 1995 program catalog of the Helsinki festival weeks weighs almost a kilo. There were enough special programs and star performers in the first year of the Huvila tent.
Thursday the worst steaminess of the Jubilee Weeks starting in the 1990s has clearly evaporated. Quality is enough even without it in the triangle formed by Huvila, Musiikkitalo and Tanssi talo.
Starting as director of the largest multi-arts festival in the Nordic countries Johanna Friendly praised at Tuesday’s presentation how Finland has “some wonderful attraction” to attract international star performers.
Johanna Friendly
It sounds good and good luck on your journey, although my own impression, especially in the field of light music, is quite the opposite due to the dwindling supply in recent years.
The exception is the ongoing culture spike in August, where Flow treats pop megastars. The festival weeks, on the other hand, seem to focus more on special gigs by local folk performers instead of so-called world music.
So this year, Huvila will be heard, for example Anna Wood with a symphony orchestra (72.90 euros, sold out) and The Seasoned Girls with a film screening (48.90 euros). Samuli Putro has planned the one-minute schedule for his celebratory concert (49.90 euros) reportedly already a year ago. A great tradition is the school concert of the sixth graders, now it’s spring in Paris.
Villa program producer Aleksi Pahkala says that he calculated that if, as a promising newcomer in Huvila in crazy 1995, who performed before the pop bible OK Computer Radiohead would be booked for Huvila’s thirties, the ticket price would rise to 600 euros. I guess there’s no danger – it’s been six years since Radiohead’s last concert.
In 1995, the price of a Radiohead ticket was FIM 90. It even took the purse of a 15-year-old high school student. Thanks again to the orderly man who, after my numerous attempts, was reluctant to let the minor have a life-changing experience.
Villa was born almost 30 years ago from the need to get a club space for more than a thousand people in Helsinki, even for a few weeks.
Even in the beginning, the capacity was not enough for the needs of the most famous performers. Juhlaviikot organized the Soundgarden gig at Jäähalli. Massive Attack had revolutionized pop at the beginning of the decade, but the band from Bristol that performed in Huvila in 1995 represented the pioneers’ music in Finland.
This year Juhlaviikot got what it had been looking for for a long time in Huvila Cat Power. There was also Moon Safari -who is touring with his classic album and just performed at the closing ceremony of the Olympics.
Songs like Sexy Boy and The silver woman would have fit perfectly into Tokoinranta’s haze, but the price equation was again impossible. In the August festival competition of the world, the price of an Air ticket would have risen to 150 euros in the too small Huvila. It reportedly exceeds the pain threshold of the city foundation festival by half.
So see you at Anna Puu’s concert.
Helsinki’s festive weeks are celebrated from August 15 to September 1, 2024. Arts night on Thursday, August 15.