Kamppi Center is favourite hangout for young and trend-conscious

Shopping mall has become the capital's largest youth club

print this

By Antti Tiainen
     
      The new commercial and residential centre in Kamppi has become the most favoured hangout for teenagers in downtown Helsinki.
      At 10:00 in the morning it does not show its true colours: there are just some schoolchildren resting on a bench on their way to school, but everybody knows that the regular hangers-out will turn up in the afternoon.
     
They start appearing around 2:00 p.m., and by 4:00 p.m. the entire mall will already be swarming with youths, who are hanging around and giving each other high-fives and hugs like old friends.
      Roope Holmström, aged 16, calls himself the "party minister" of Kamppi, saying that one does not have to agree on coming there as the gang know each other well and gather there anyway.
     
Everybody comes to Kamppi, as all their friends do, and the mall is easy to reach from every direction.
      In addition to just loafing and schmoozing there, one can also do a bit of shopping.
      On Friday night, the number of hangers-out must be counted in the several hundreds, while the estimates by the youths themselves range from a couple of hundred to more than a thousand.
      ”The number of loitering youngsters appears to grow every day. One has to chase them away all the time, as they are occupying all the benches. Luckily we will soon get glass walls”, the coffee bar assistant at Cafe Rougé says with a smile. The coffee shop is in the middle of the mall.
     
Typically, the Kamppi hangers-out are 13- to 17-year-old adolescents, and many of them spend time in the shopping centre almost every day.
      These teenagers do not like to hang in Helsinki’s Main Railway Station, as older and more dangerous people are loitering there. Besides, it is dirty and cold.
      ”The atmosphere at the Kamppi Center is safer”, Timo Avdo concludes.
      On weekend nights, a dozen or so guards from Securitas, a large security firm, are patrolling in the Kamppi Center. In addition, there are hundreds of surveillance cameras all around the place.
     
The most significant problem posed by the mass of slightly unwelcome adolescents is the fact that they block up the entrances and escalators.
      Apparently, there is an ongoing cat-and-mouse game between the guards and the youths.
      ”Sometimes they tell us to go out, if we are just hanging out here”, reports Ilmari Sarjakoski.
     
Just before 8:00 in the evening the atmosphere becomes more restless.
      Many youngsters have already gone home, while the remaining youths start gathering in the adjacent Narinkka Square outside the mall. A police patrol is keeping a watchful eye on the young people.
      Some youngsters have changed from energy drinks to beer, while some of them are already stumbling around legless.
      After 9:00 p.m. the shops are closing, the crowd of youngsters is dispersing into the Helsinki night, and the mall is finally almost empty.
     
Actually, they will go to McDonald’s or home, where they will continue their night on the Internet, says Roope Holmström the party minister.
      By 11:00 p.m. the Kamppi streets will be occupied by grown-ups, looking for Helsinki’s nightlife.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat/ First published in print 29.3.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Classical music being used to drive away youngsters from loitering in public places (17.10.2006)
  Kamppi Center reaches its full height (18.10.2004)
  Kamppi Center ready to open all shops in downtown Helsinki tomorrow (1.3.2006)

Links:
  Kamppi Center
  Securitas Group

ANTTI TIAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
antti.tiainen@hs.fi