folklandia - Songlines

FE ST I VA L
f
P R O F I L E
FESTIVAL PROFILE
FOLKLANDIA
THE BALTIC SEA
Simon Broughton takes an extraordinary
winter music cruise from Turku in Finland
to Stockholm in Sweden and back
Main picture: ice flows
around the archipelago of
islands in the Baltic
Right, top to bottom:
hand-crafted kantele for
sale on board; nyckelharpa
player in the group Nordic
54 Songlines
I
t’s January and an electronic display at
the port in Turku says the temperature
is -15 degrees. This is clearly no
Mediterranean cruise, but, despite the
weather, the Folklandia cruise ranks
amongst the most extraordinarily warm
experiences of my life.
This year was the 15th year of Folklandia
and, although it’s a well-kept secret outside
the country, it’s become well-known and
hugely popular in Finland. When the 2,000 or
so tickets are put on sale each January (a year
before the next departure) they sell out in a
matter of hours.
The cruise departs the first weekend in
January from Turku, the former capital of
Finland on the south-west coast, and sails to
Stockholm, the Swedish capital, and back. It’s
like a 24-hour floating festival with virtually
non-stop music. It is organised by the Pispalan
Sottiisi Festival based in Tampere. “It is a sort
of showcase for Finnish folk music, but
amateurs as well as professionals,” explains the
director Jukka Heinämäki, a dancer and
choreographer. “Of course people come for the
music, but it’s also the atmosphere and the
party.” Although people keep coming back, he
says about 40% are new visitors each year. The
boat, M/S Silja Europa, accommodates around
3,000 people, of whom almost 1,000 are invited
– performers and music organisers – and
2,000 are paying customers. It’s like a festival
and a trade fair combined. Within a few
minutes I’ve bumped into kantele player
Hannu Saha (see Tools of the Trade in #26)
who now heads the Finnish Arts Council.
“Everything in the folk music scene happens in
summer, so it’s really important to have
something in this silent winter time.”
I’m delighted to be allocated one of the
superior cabins with a large window
overlooking the water and ice flows. January
2010 was dramatically cold in Finland, as it was
in many parts of Europe. A channel had been
cleared through the archipelago of islands close
to Turku where the Baltic Sea meets the Gulf
of Bothnia. In the bathroom in my cabin
alongside the sachets of shampoo and soap is a
packet containing ear-plugs, another hint this
winter time isn’t going to be silent.
The Silja Europa is a regular car-ferry, but
the character of the boat is transformed for
October 2010
things below the waist.” One of Finnish music’s
most ubiquitous figures, Antti Savilampi,
usually the energetic animator of dance events,
had a torch strapped to his forehead and the
sauna song lyrics in plastic steam-proof folders.
There was also some strong liquor doing the
rounds. Even more extraordinary than the
sounds resonating through the steam was the
view through the glass wall of the sauna. Here
we were in steamy well-being while glinting
ghostly in the moonlight were the slabs of ice
floating in the Baltic. A wonderful image and
sensation I will never forget.
Lo
fot
en
Ve
ste
ra l
en
Folklandia. As drinks on the ship are cheaper
than in either Finland or Sweden, there’s a lot
Soroya
of drinking. But one of the bar staff tells me
that there’s heavy competition to get
scheduled on the cruise because the
Senja
atmosphere is “more mild and civilised” than
the regular trips. There are six stages dotted
around the ship – mostly in bars and lounges
Vestfjorden
so the acoustics are not always great, although
the so-called Moulin Rouge is a proper
concert venue, free from chatter and bar
noise. But music is bursting out all over –
there are duos and groups of amateur
musicians playing on the stairs between decks
or nestled in corners across the ship. There’s
also a room of stalls selling instruments –
everything from Jew’s harps and tree-bark
trumpets to beautifully hand-crafted kanteles.
The typical demographic of cruise clientele
is at the mature end, but not for Folklandia.
Left: music is bursting out
all over the ship for 24 hours
Finnish sauna songs are a little-known genre on the
international scene and even good friends refused to
translate the words, saying they were “usually about
sucking things below the waist”
Barents Sea
Here you get the full range – lots of veteran
musicians, but also a young, energetic crowd,
particularly of dancers. And the music is
wide-ranging too: from the dark runo songs
of Liisa Matveinan and Tellu Turkka to the
alarmingly catchy songs of glamorous duo
(and Eurovision
hopefuls) Kuunkuiskaajat.
RUSSIA
From the kantele-meets-rock‘n’roll of the
Vilma Timonen Quartet to the kantele-meets
-Japanese koto of Minna Padilla and the
Helsinki Koto Ensemble. I was particularly
impressed by Nordic, three graduates of the
Royal College of Music in Stockholm, on
nyckelharpa, mandolin and cello. Rather like
the Polish trio Kroke, they draw on folk
traditions but spin them out into sustained
classical style pieces. Very classy.
Gulf of
Bothnia
The most extraordinary experience of the
FINLAND
trip brought music, alcohol and extremes of
Turku
St. Petersburg
Aland
temperature together. Sometime around 1am
Helsinki
SWEDEN
I went for some late-night sauna songs. The
Finns aren’t shy about their bodies and about
ESTONIA
Stockholm
20 of us sweated side by side totally naked in
the mixed sauna – it’s amazing what the steam
can hide. Finnish sauna songs are a littleGulf of Riga
● Although the Folklandia cruise always
sells out,
known genreRUSSIA
on the international scene and
Gotland
there are a few tickets kept back for foreign visitors.
even
good
friends
refused to translate the
Riga
LATVIAwords, saying they were “usually about sucking
These can be applied for through Travel Agency
Liepaja
Oland
MatkaVekka,
tel +358 (0)20 120 4818 or email:
Daugavpils
[email protected] or Pispala
Vitsyebsk
Baltic
LITHUANIA
Schottische,
tel +358Klaipeda
(0)3 212 2147 or email:
Sea
[email protected]
BELARUS
Kaunas
Vilnius
Barysaw
Kaliningrad
a cabin (usually shared), range
● Tickets, including
RUSSIA
from €80-100.
Gdansk
Minsk
POLAND
● The next cruise is January 7-8 2011. Turku is
Babruysk
one of Europe’s Capitals of Culture in 2011. It’s a
handsome city with a cathedral dating back to
1300, a medieval castle, art museum, the historic
Luostarinmäki district preserving old wooden
houses and the Sibelius Museum which holds a great
collection of instruments from around the world.
Like most people on the ship, I managed to
get perhaps just a few hours sleep from 4am.
And I was truly thankful I wasn’t doing the
Tikkuristi Dancing Championship the next
morning. This is dancing on a pair of crossed
sticks with your feet tapping into the four
quadrants without touching the sticks – as
the music gets faster and faster. When you
touch the sticks you pick them up and
withdraw. The winner is the last dancer
standing. How they managed this after the
night before I’ll never know. But the whole
Folklandia experience does haunt the
memory like some inexplicable dream. l
FEET
TAPPING?
Songlines Music Travel has
a wide range of overseas
festival trips for 2010/11
on offer, including the
Lake of Stars Festival in
Malawi and RIFF in India.
www.songlines.co.uk/
musictravel
HOW TO GET THERE
o
Erkki Wrangn/Jussi Kaijankangas
Bornholm
www.songlines.co.uk
Above: dancers from the
Pohjanmaa region on the
west coast
Left to right: Finnish duo
Kuunkuiskaajat; the
Siiputus kicking dance
from eastern Finland;
contestants taking part in
the Tikkuristi competition
Songlines 55