Rainy summer reflected in number of visitors to Finnish festivals

Total attendance at Finland Festivals events unchanged from 2003

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Rain took its toll on some of last summer's festivals, but as a whole the Finland Festivals season was a relative success, with the total number of visitors remaining unchanged from the previous summer.
      In all, some 1.9 million people visited various summer events, and over 700,000 tickets were sold. This was nevertheless the second summer in succession with negligible growth overall.
      Some individual events scored successes at the box-office: an increase of over 30 percent in ticket sales was achieved by the likes of the Lahti Organ Festival, Pispala Schottische, Keitelejazz, the Kuopio Dance Festival, Joroinen Music Days, Kalottjazz&Blues Festival, and the Turku Music Festival. On the other hand, another six summer events suffered a ticket sales slump of equivalent size.
      Of the major audience events, only Pori Jazz, Pispala Schottische, and Provinssirock managed to increase their number of visitors.
     
Based on raw ticket sales, Finland's largest cultural event is Pori Jazz with 70,000 tickets sold. The runners-up are the Savonlinna Opera Festival and Helsinki Festival with 62,000 and 59,000 tickets sold respectively.
      When comparing revenue from sales, Savonlinna beats out Pori with EUR 4.5 million against EUR 3 million.
      Based on the aggregate number of visitors, the Helsinki Festival, with its numerous free events, is the grandest of all Finland's summer festivals. Its various happenings were enjoyed by nearly a quarter of a million people this year.
      Finland Festivals, the umbrella organisation of the country's most important cultural events, has been in existence since 1968.


Links:
  Finland Festivals

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