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An oasis of cultural experience rises in Lammassaari in August

Once again, the Festival Tent offering a variety of cultural programme is erected in Lammassaari island – even bigger and more long-lasting than its predecessor. The Fellini-esque atmosphere of the dimming August evenings provide a meeting place for high, low, heavy, and light culture mixed with coloured lights and the smells of sea wind and wine.

The Festival Tent will be pitched near the Oulu City Centre in Lammassaari between the 12th and 28th of August. This means that the tent with a 1,000 spectator capacity offers all kinds of unique and moving cultural events from choir concerts to death metal within a time span of almost three weeks.

The Festival Tent programme features, for example, the free event Taiteiden yö (Night of the Arts), the legendary Pumpeli Awards gala evening, and the Soiva Siili children’s band 15th Anniversary concert. Foreign artists are represented by US band OK Go – a group that are famous for their spectacular music videos will now be dignifying the opening of the Oulu Music Video Festival with their presence.

COLLABORATIVELY TOWARD FESTIVAL WEEKS OF CULTURE

The practical arrangements are managed by the Festival Tent team: Jukka Takalo, Hilkka Haaga and Katri Dahlström. The creative task force also includes Music Video Festival Creative Director Taina Ronkainen and musician Vesa Ranta, who is the event coordinator for rock club Nuclear Nightclub. The Festival Tent is supervised by the Oulu Music Video Festival organisation, with more than 15 years of experience in producing events related to music and film.

The partners and sponsors at this stage are Oulun Valistustalo Oy, the Northern Ostrobothnian Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Oulu 15, Nuclear Nightclub, Oulu Music Video Festival, and Cultural Centre Valve. The Festival Tent 2010 acts as a kick-off for developing a roof organisation for cultural events in Oulu and the Oulu region. The goal is to establish a new collaborative organisation, which will then begin to promote an annual Festival Week event.

In 2008, the idea of the Festival Tent was tested as an anniversary arena for the Music Video Festival between 19 and 24 August. During the period of just under a week, the tent housed a versatile programme ranging from a string orchestra concert to a metal happening. The new cultural arena was received with enthusiasm, and more than 4,000 spectators visited the various events there.