Arts students’ Feel Helsinki festival returns despite restrictions – some of the events to be streamed online
Uniarts Helsinki’s Feel Helsinki festival will be organised on Saturday, 4 September, at the Helsinki Music Centre. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions in force in the event industry, some of the events must be cancelled, but there will still be a versatile selection of art experiences for people to enjoy on site or online.
The Feel Helsinki festival will showcase the versatile talent of Uniarts Helsinki’s students, teachers and alumni at the Helsinki Music Centre on the first Saturday of September. Due to the restrictions issued by the Regional State Administrative Agency of Southern Finland, only about a half of the events planned for the unique arts festival can be performed in front of a live audience. Some of the events will be available for viewing online, while some of the events must be cancelled entirely.
The Taidepiste discussion series will be arranged as part of the festival programme in accordance with the valid restrictions for a live audience of 50 people in total, and the event is also live streamed on YouTube. Panellist guests include President Tarja Halonen, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, writer Miki Liukkonen, journalist Saska Saarikoski, coach Anu Nieminen and activist Suvi Auvinen. In between the discussions, the Taidepiste audience is treated to art performances by students, including music and monologues.
The music performances by eight groups planned for the Helsinki Music Centre Terrace will also be arranged with consideration to the restrictions on gatherings. Between noon and eight in the evening, people are welcome to come and enjoy performances combining various music genres, ranging from jazz to rock and folk music to fusion rap. The maximum number of people in the audience of the outdoor Terrace simultaneously is 50.
Fine arts will get a jump-start on Feel Helsinki, as the exhibition featuring works by 13 Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts students will open at the Helsinki Music Centre already on 18 August. Painting is the most frequently used technique in the works, but photography, ceramics, sculpture, textile and graphic arts are also represented. On the day of the festival on 4 September, the media screen of the Helsinki Music Centre will also display video art by six students.
In the evening on 4 September, the Concert Hall of the Helsinki Music Centre will serve as the venue for the 10th anniversary concert of Sibelius Academy Folk Big Band. Due to the restrictions, it is not possible to allow people from outside the university community in attendance, but the concert will be live streamed to the public on Uniarts Helsinki’s YouTube channel.
New restrictions were a big disappointment
It was the firm goal of the Feel Helsinki organisers to be able to hold the festival as a live event. The festival programme was put together through an open call for Uniarts Helsinki’s students and teachers, and the overarching theme was the overwhelming eagerness of young artists to finally get to connect with a live audience after over a year-and-a-half-long break.
However, new restrictions on gatherings and events were announced on the second week of August, and unfortunately, they made it impossible to organise the festival according to the original plan. Students, teachers and the whole arts sector are disappointed in the strict restrictions that affect the arts and culture sectors.
“Many people feel as though the COVID pandemic has stolen the future of art. The unfair and unbalanced nature of the restrictions and inconsistent communications reinforce this feeling. Interacting with an audience is a necessity for students who are studying to become artists, which is why we’ll organise the festival, even though the restrictions make it very difficult,” Rector of Uniarts Helsinki Kaarlo Hildén says.
The third edition of Feel Helsinki
The Feel Helsinki event was organised at the Helsinki Music Centre for the first time in June 2019. The new festival right in the city centre attracted over 5,500 visitors. In 2020, the event was organised only virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it managed to reach over 63,000 viewers online.