Tickets are going fast for the Helsinki Festival, which gets under way this Thursday.
The concert on August 17th by American alternative rockers Wilco in the Huvila Festival Tent is sold out, as are some of the five chamber music concerts in the City Hall, the two dates featuring Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra in Finlandia Hall, both Huvila performances by the husband and wife pairing of ex-Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed and performance artist/musician Laurie Anderson, and a number of other events.
Tickets are still available for the Ensemble InterContemporain concerts that kick off the festival on the 13th and 14th, featuring Pierre Boulez and Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki.
It may also be that returns or a few leftover seats will come on sale for the fully-booked concerts.
The Helsinki Festival runs from August 13th to 30th, and details of the programme, and of the traditional "Night of the Arts" (Friday 21st) can be had from the link below.
We shall also be running a weekly article on the contemporary music icon Pierre Boulez in our weeklies on Tuesday.
