FESTIVALS / MUSIC Björk will come for the first time to Helsinki this summer. The small Islandic singer, who has been big on the world stage for many years, will perform in the capital on the 10th of July as part of this year‘s Helsinki Festival. She will take into test use Finlandia Park as a new open air music venue. Around 10,000 people are expected to attend the concert on the shores of Töölö Bay behind Finlandia Hall.
Tickets costing 69 euros will go on sale next Monday (21.4) at 9.00 via Lippupalvelu and Tiketti ticket services. To the price of each ticket one euro is added for Unicef.
Björk was scheduled to perform during the festival already in 2000, but had to cancel her performance. Earlier she performed in Finland at Provinssirock (with the Sugarcubes) in 1989, at Pori Jazz in 1996 and at Ruisrock in 1998.
Helsinki Festival 2008
The Helsinki Festival is this year organized for the fortieth time. This year the festival takes place early, from the 15th until the 31st of August. The first performances taking place under the festival banner, however, start already next Monday (21.4) with famous Romanian concert pianist Radu Lupu and on the 5th of May with the Berlin Philharmonic with conductor Sir Simon Rattle, both at Finlandia Hall.
Highlights
Other highlights at this year’s edition of the Helsinki Festival include Seun Kuti, the son of Nigerian afrobeat legend Fela Kuti (1938-1997), with his father’s 15-member strong band Egypt 80 (16.8), award-winning Malian singer-songwriter and guitarist Rokia Traoré (17.8), Swedish singers Eva Dahlgren and Peter Jöback (15.8), Grammy-award winning American neo-klezmer band The Klezmatics (27.8), the Finnish premiere of Tero Saarinen’s choreography Next of Kin (27.8), and the premiere of Peter von Bagh’s new film Helsinki, ikuisesti (15.8).
For more information, check the Helsinki Festival website