Festive! (e.g. Inspiration Information @ Flow!)

This turned out to be another reeeeally lengthy post, so what I'll do this time is provide you with an abstract from which you can decide whether you're bothered to read the full text, below. Here you are:

Exciting times! Summer 2010 looks pretty much like this:

Ruisrock: Florence & the Machine! Regina Spektor! 

Ilosaarirock: DJ Shadow! FNM!
Alppipuiston kansanjuhla! Basso Festival?

Provinssirock: Mew, Cypress Hill, Rammstein!

Pori Jazz: Massive Attack! Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings! (Toto?) N.E.R.D.! José James! Gil Scott-Heron! Tori Amos!

Flow Festival: Air! M.I.A.! José James! Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen present: Inspiration Information!

Helsinki Festival: programme TBA May 4th; this far we got Caetano Veloso!

Y mucho mas...

 Allen and Tenor, supposedly pretty inspired

On to the full text:

It must be April! Every week comes around with new festival line-up publications: the Finnish summer is slowly revealing its 2010 form, and it's looking mighty fine.

Ruisrock is already known to host, once again, The Sounds, with a bunch of other Swedish sensations, as well as the lovely indie ladies Regina Spektor and Florence and the Machine, plus a heavy load of heavy and the cream of the Finnish pop crop. Also Ilosaari and Provinssi have come out from this year's closet, hosting bands such as DJ Shadow, Faith No More, and Bad Religion (in Joensuu), and Mew, Cypress Hill, and Rammstein among many others (in Seinäjoki). Not bad, Finland.

Risto at Ruisrock 2009

One particularly blaaah day in the library last week got a very welcome new direction when I noticed that Pori Jazz has announced its entire programme. Thanks to the new creative management (the catch-all guys Tuomas Kallio and Teppo Mäkynen, with Markus Partanen), it's simply awesome! The past few years have not been too inspiring, but now a change came with a vengeance. Old Pori Jazz regulars (myself included) seem to be pretty excited again. The programme as a whole is not dedicated solely for the jazz purists this year either, though. There are quality acts from several fields of rhytm music in good proportions and impressive variety.

I have already bought a ticket to the joint Kirjurinluoto afternoon of Massive Attack, N.E.R.D., and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Uncanny! That's 24 July; and if after Kirjurinluoto we still got some stamina, nothing would be sweeter than José James and Timo Lassy at the LP-fortysomething club the same night. And Gil Scott-Heron plays there the night before! Many other excellent acts in the line-up, too. And then they have Toto, a special treat for the corruption guests behaving badly in their casual jackets at the VIP tent I believe.

Speaking of José James and Timo Lassy; there should be no need to feel blue should we miss them in Pori, because - thank you again Tuomas Kallio - they will also be playing in our own Flow Festival, Helsinki's new pet event, in mid-August. The three-day urban festival published its first  list of artists today, among them such treats as the aforementioned dynamic duo with an orchestra, the now-legendary French twosome Air, rising star M.I.A., Sigur Ros's vocalist Jónsi, and a bunch of street-cred names that a mainstreamist such as myself does not yet recognize - hello Spotify! Flow has already published its tentative Spotify teaser list, in fact. Hear it out, here!

 Picture says all - Flow 2009

And what do you know: two living legends Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen will enlighten Flow with their collaboration project Inspiration Information! Great title! Grrrreat sounds! I'm very pleased. Watch & listen to a preview here. Looking back into last summer, my Flow memories are among the fondest: Jenny Wilson with the sun in her eyes and ours, Top Billin' partying in the enormous Voimala hall, midnight dances by Itäväylä, brunching together before the next day, Lily Allen with the aching backside, skumppa-breaks with the girls and then some more sun & music...ah!

Helsinki Festival a.k.a. Helsingin juhlaviikot, of which Flow forms an independent part, publishes its extensive programme on May 4th - can't wait for that either! A few advance concerts have already been announced (Caetano Veloso, meu amor!). Looks like there's no need to step outside national borders this summer. If you want to take this advice to unnecessary extremes, you can now even invite the festival into your livingroom! Act fast, though, by applying here.

 Recognize me?

If, by contrast, you're badly yearning for a foreign experience, there's always Roskilde, the countless UK festivals, Way out West, and others in Sweden - apparently they (the Swedes) are not organizing the winner of the lamest name competition, Where the Action Is festival this year though. Despite the name I have heard it was super last year, hosting all those golden artists that couldn't be bothered to cross the bay to Finland. 

Well, that particular story of our lives is at least partly in the past now, as you could see from all the names listed in this post! Hurra och heja Finland, och hjärtligen välkommen sommaren 2010!

P.S. Best not forget the lower-key, free and pleasant park happenings around Helsinki either. ELMU ry. will be back in Alppipuisto in July with I Was A Teenage Satan Worshipper, Kiki Pau, and others. So far, I've only found info on this Kansanjuhla in Facebook. We're hoping that the people at Basso.fi are just late announcers (as they were last year, too), and that we'll have another Basso Festival in Koff park, too.

P.P.S. This was just a quick overview of the biggest events - you are free and very welcome to list smaller scale events here, those that we should also remember to mark in our calendars and get excited over!?