Night of the Arts takes over Helsinki today

Free concert in Senate Square certain to draw big crowds and cause traffic diversions

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Friday sees the Night of the Arts in Helsinki, a free culture'n'fun happening in in which museums and art galleries, bookstores and libraries all keep their doors open late, and more than 200 events are held throughout the city and suburbs.
      The hugely popular night on the town was first arranged in 1989, so this is the 20th celebration of the occasion.
      However, for the biggest single gathering of the evening, one needs to double that number as the Rock, Rytmi ja Rakkaus ("Rock, Rhythm and Love" - the alliteration doesn’t work quite so well in English) free concert in the Senate Square will be looking back to 1968.
     
The fascination with this particular date has something to do with a lingering yen for the summer of love and youth revolution era, but is probably more connected with the fact that 1968 was the year in which the Helsinki Festival was founded, expanding on the earlier Sibelius Weeks held at around this time in late August.
      The Night of the Arts is now an integral part of the programme of the two-week Helsinki Festival, Finland’s largest annual cultural extravaganza.
      The 1968 motif is in evidence elsewhere, too, with a panel discussion on the social and political legacy of 1968, and free outdoor showings of movies from that year, including the Bob Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back and John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy (though pedants might say this was actually released only in 1969).
     
But back to the concert, which is expected to draw a crowd of around 30,000 - in other words a full house in the Senate Square.
      The idea is that prominent Finnish artists will perform a selection of rock classics that were first released in 1968 - and the choice has been made on the basis of a public vote on the Helsingin Sanomat online pages.
      The set-list is known in advance only in respect of the top five songs in the public vote, which include Simon and Garfunkle’s Mrs. Robinson, Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild, and Hey Jude by The Beatles.
      Other songs bubbling under at the time when the voting closed included Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, as made famous by Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane's Somebody to Love, and Hello, I Love You by The Doors.
     
Voters were also asked to name the Finnish tunes from the year that they would like to hear again in cover versions, so the line-up will be a mixture of domestic and foreign sounds.
      A house band and invited soloists will be stepping up to perform the numbers, with some surprise guests likely.
      Fingers are being crossed that the weather forecast - clear and around 18°C when things get started - will hold.
     
One certainty, however, will be that unless it rains cats and dogs, the entire Senate Square area will be a zoo by the time the '68 House Band come on stage at 20:30.
      Streets around the square will be shut off to traffic, some from as early as 15:00 and all by 18:00 at the latest. Buses and trams in the vicinity will be diverted between 18:00 and 23:00, and there will be additional departures by bus and Metro and local commuter trains to take people home in the small hours after the Night of the Arets winds down.
      If you are planning to go downtown, the best bet is to check out the Helsinki Festival site (linked below) for a selection of what to see (you can’t see everything by any means), and also the pages of Finnish Railways and Helsinki City Transport for public transport arrangements.
      Needless to say, taking the car isn’t a great idea.
     
Enjoy!


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Record crowds turn out for Night of the Arts (24.8.2007)

Links:
  Helsinki City Transport (HKL) Route exceptions and additional services (in Finnish)
  Helsinki Festival Night of the Arts
  Finnish Railways

Helsingin Sanomat