The new festival combines stage dance and Finnish indie at Punkalaitum

Finland there is a newcomer on the festival field, 19.–20. Dance or Die to be organized in June. It promises to combine indie music and stage dancing.

The program of the event organized by the lake in Punkalaitum is new: many artists interpret other familiar songs instead of their own music.

Saimaa and Vantaa Viihdeorkesteri Ensemble, for example, perform Finnish hits, Litku Klemetti Eurovisa and Timo Kämäräinen with the band Leevi and the Leavings’ production.

There are other performers MArppa & Cousin Jiri, Antti Autio, Ville Leinonen & Valumo, Jaakko Laitinen & Väära raha and Michael Blue. Later in the spring, “Finland’s most interesting” DJ names will also be published.

The festival the organizers have experience with other summer events: the Lördag record company Aki Roukala has done Hailuoto’s Bättre Folk and Tampere Festival, Field Trip company Jussi Saarinen Ruka’s Solstice event again.

Roukala says that the idea came from Saarinen. There seemed to be an order for stage dance parties. After the corona pandemic, Roukala herself had toured dance stages with the group Maustetyttöjen and Agents, which she managed, and the stage dance culture silenced by the pandemic seemed to revive quickly in a few years.

According to Roukala, the event is expected to be of interest to the same, largely urban audience as, for example, Bättre Folk and Festivaali.

“We’ve playfully called this hipster stage dancing.”

The program also includes a stage dance school.

Festival venue to find the event organizers toured Finnish dance stages. The goal was to find the most beautiful one possible, and one with enough space. Särkä’s stage at Punkalaitumma turned out to be the best.

In 2021, Roukala said HS’s Bättre Folk festival in the article aboutthat Hailuoto is “perhaps the most absurd place in Finland to organize festivals”. How does the promontory in Pirkanmaa relate to this?

“It’s almost as absurd.”

The festival organizers will set up a temporary campsite with services in the area. A total of 1,500 tickets will be sold for the event. The age limit is 18 years.