Lei, body paint, coloured powder; fireworks and strobe lights; famous names and upcoming DJs - this year’s Weekend Festival at Kyläsaari had it all. Boasting three stages with different artists, special effects and entertainment, the Weekend was enjoyed by an audience ranging from those relatively unfamiliar with the electronic and dance music scene, to the seasoned connoisseurs.
From the moment the gates swung open, enthusiasm radiated from the already busy festival district. By 3 pm hoards of festival-goers had arrived to hear the first artists, with the vicinity filling up to its full capacity by around 8 pm. The music was excellent; the atmosphere contagious.
Besides music, the Weekend hosted pop up restaurants including Fafa’s falafels, Tokyo Girl’s Japanese cuisine, and classic hot dogs to name a few. For the dehydrated, you could fill up your bottle with ‘Free Finnish Water’ at a water station. There was also plenty of entertainment throughout the day. You could go bungee jumping, try your hand at “sumo wrestling”, or take in the view from a small Ferris wheel. The festival ran efficiently, despite queues to the main bars and to the toilets towards the end of the night.
Three stages of the Weekend
With an assortment of artists including Finnish celebrities, rising stars, and internationally acclaimed DJs, Weekend boasted three stages. It was easy to drift from one to another, and to always find delicious tunes to listen to. Although an electronic dance event, the three stages made it easy for a stranger to the scene to get a taste of the flavours of the genre.
The Orkidea & friends stage featured Rony Rex and Heikki L among others. The theme was fire: flaming torches and hula hoops were thrown across the stage complimenting the artists. The “Future” stage featured upcoming international DJs including the Melbourne-based Contiez and Dutch artist Dyro. This is where the party started: Contiez had arms reaching towards the sky and an animated audience up and dancing by 4 pm already. As a smaller stage farther away from the other two and set by the sea, the feeling between the artists and fans on the Future stage felt more intimate. Some DJs, including Dyro, came to meet the fans and take selfies with them, causing many an overwhelmed fan to fill the air with enthusiastic expletives.
The NRJ stage presented Finnish artists Nopsajalka and JVG, followed by artists including Knife Party, Hardwell and Deadmau5 with his iconic dead mouse hat as the final act. The NRJ stage was the largest, sporting the most impressive special effects including lasers, smoke machines, colourful spaghetti confetti, and with screens lighting the stage up in brilliant tones of blue, green and pink. Once evening descended, the lightshow appeared even more dramatic, illuminating the dancing audience a bright pink, green or theatrical white. The NRJ stage also threw flames across the stage for some performances including the nature-themed set from Knife Party. Fireworks lit the sky for the final set of Deadmau5. As the main act, many were there to see the Canadian DJ primarily. Surprisingly, he wasn’t the most impressive act on the bill – which shows the quality of some of the other artists appearing at the festival. For most of the audience who were there to dance, Deadmau5’s beats may have felt a little monotonic in comparison to some more dance-friendly artists such as Dyro, Hardwell and Knife Party.
A Weekend to remember
Overall, the Weekend was a raging success, and seems from many accounts to have been an improvement from last year’s. “Having been to Weekend last year as well, this year’s festival was a leap forwards and upwards,” observed Finnish DJ Orkidea, mentioning in particular the bars and stages. Orkidea was the main act on the second stage, having played venues such as the Ministry of Sound in London and Café del mar in Ibiza. “The main stage is one of the most impressive ones I’ve seen at a festival in Finland so far.”
Emmiina, 22, from Turku, had similar sentiments. “Last year there was a tent that was totally blocked because it was so full of people, and you couldn’t see inside,” she said. This year, however, scored far more points for Emmiina.
“My favourite part is the atmosphere, everyone being dressed up really adds to the mood in particular,” commented Mari, 23, from Tampere.
“The biggest difference between Friday and Saturday was the long queue to the priority area, which took an hour to enter on Friday, but had ran smoother [on Saturday]”, Kalleand Gabriel, 23, Kirkkonummi, stated.
Moods reached well beyond the strobe lights and it seemed like the music had been enjoyed by all; although Deadmau5 may not have impressed all, when he cried, “When America invades Canada, I’m moving to Finland!”, the Weekend replied with a roar – we’ll take you, Deadmau5! All in all, this was most certainly a Weekend to remember.
Alicia Jensen – HT
Images: Alicia Jensen
