Punk rock well-represented on this summer’s music festival scene

Heavy metal still dominates, but there is plenty on offer for devotees of other types of music

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The hard rock offerings delivered up by the American entertainment veterans Kiss kicked off Finland’s music festival summer yesterday with the band’s visit to the Sauna Open Air event organised at the city of Tampere.
      The summer is set to continue in a somewhat hard mood. Of the approximately 150 foreign acts to appear on stage at Finland’s larger festivals, over a third play heavy or metal music.
      The substantial representation by artists specialising in the heavier stuff is explained by the fact that besides Sauna Open Air, many other festivals, such as Nummirock, Sonisphere, and the Tuska (“Pain”) Open Air event in Helsinki are very much dedicated to metal music.
      Even at the legendary Provinssirock, nearly a third of the foreign acts promise to be of the heavier kind.
     
Besides heavy metal, what is characteristic of this summer’s music festival scene is the strong presence of punk.
      More than ten foreign punk acts will make an appearance at various festivals across the country, from punk icon Jello Biafra’s gig at Provinssirock to Ilosaarirock headliners Bad Religion.
      “These things come in cycles”, explains Janne Tamminen, who runs the Combat Rock Industry punk label and shop.
      Tamminen reckons that the world’s political and economical situation has once again activated the punk bands.
      “And punk bands have something to say about how things are in this world. It does not necessarily affect the promoters or gig organisers, but it does affect the activity of the bands, and also their demand. The general public are interested in bands that have something to say.”
     
Ruisrock (literally “Rye Rock”) in Turku is a venerable festival that is this year relying strongly on the enduring popularity of punk.
      In its 40th anniversary happening, Ruisrock has no less than eight acts that can be classified as punk artists from the skateboard punk icon NOFX to hard core punk band Rise Against, which lists for example console games as a source of inspiration.
      “The year 2010 is not by any means a larger-than-life year for punk rock. It is simply a lucky coincidence of various factors. The scene constantly throws up good new bands, and many of the older groups are still full of life. It may be that the promoters have acquired similar types of acts to their events unaware of each others’ doings”, explains Ruisrock promoter Juhani Merimaa, who was also after Bad Religion.
     
In Janne Tamminen’s view punk has not come back to fashion on the same scale it did in the mid-1990s thanks to acts such as The Offspring, NOFX, and Green Day, who recently visited in Finland.
      “It was a big deal back then. Even the media emphasised punk more back then. Today, punk is no longer underlined. Punk groups are just bands among other bands.”
      “Among the Green Day audience the other day you could hardly spot punks. Even that band has turned into a mainstream rock group”, Juhani Merimaa reckons.
     
All in all, Finland’s music festival summer promises to be fairly comprehensive with the needs of devotees of various genres of rock music being catered for.
      The country’s indie fans will delight in N.E.R.D. making an appearance at the Pori Jazz festival, Belle & Sebastian at Ruisrock, and M.I.A. at Flow in Helsinki.
      A Finnish rock festival summer would not be complete without an appearance by Swedish outfits The Sounds (Ruisrock, Jurassic Rock, Ankkarock) and The Ark (Ruisrock, Ankkarock), or without Volbeat (Sonisphere) and Mew (Provinssirock) from Denmark, for that matter.
      The summer’s most conscientious performer comes from Germany, however. The Baseballs will perform at no fewer than ten different summer happenings from Ruisrock to the Kotka Maritime Festival.
      Of the favourites from the 1990s, Cypress Hill (Provinssirock), Massive Attack (Pori Jazz) and Faith No More (Ilosaarirock) will all also be seen in Finland this summer.
      The season’s fresh female acts will include Paloma Faith (Provinssirock), Florence & The Machine (Ruisrock), Marina and the Diamonds (Flow) and Amy Macdonald (Ankkarock).


Links:
  Tuska Open Air
  Flow
  Sonisphere in Pori
  Provinssirock
  Ilosaarirock
  Ruisrock
  Ankkarock

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