_format-1500w.png)
Helsinki Fest 2020 – A Special Delivery
Around this time, the streets of Helsinki are buzzing. It’s Helsinki Art Festival, usually the largest multi-art festival in the Nordic region. This year, the buzz is quieter. The festival is slimmed down, with courtyards and streets open, but mass crowds prohibited. It has, however, done little to dent the city’s confidence. A forerunner in digital development (voted the EU’s ‘most innovative region’ last year), the city has created a concept that brings people together while keeping them physically distant. In the run-up to this month’s festival, anyone could order an ‘Art Gift’ to their friends and family. A short performance, dance, circus act or poetry reading… all delivered safely on the street outside. The artists turn up, and the recipients watch on from their doorsteps and balconies. Genius!
Free of charge through an application process, Helsinki City Council hopes the concept will catch-on elsewhere. The festival organisers paid selected artists a fee per day in exchange for eight ‘gifts’, while the application process enabled booking and confirmation in a manner easily accessible to all. Viewers could see available times and create routes for the artists to follow.
“The impact of coronavirus has been especially severe for art and culture…The ‘Art Gift’ concept was a brilliant example of solving problems by combining artistic and technological competence. It offered safe performances and kept artists working.”
Artistic Director of Helsinki Fest, Marko Ahtisaari, says the ‘gifts’ are presents to his colleagues in the art and events sector. “Developing such a project in a week has been a big effort,” he explains. “We hope to encourage people everywhere to take inspiration and develop the system elsewhere.”
The app that enabled bookings has now been open sourced. The hope, of course, is that this idea will spread and be taken on by similar festivals around the world. Copenhagen, Manchester, Kyoto….it could be coming your way soon.
Helsinki Fest runs from 21 to 23 August 2020, so if you are in Helsinki this weekend, make sure you get out and explore what’s on.
