Editorial | In August, Helsinki is at its best

Editorial|Editorial

In August well-rested city dwellers return from their vacations and look at their hometown with refreshed and greedy eyes for life. What to do, who to meet? The possibilities are endless.

Right now, Helsinki is at its best. Walking through the city, it’s easy to understand why Helsinki was selected in last year’s study, the world’s third best city to live in, after London and New York. Autumn is another matter, but it’s still far away.

The tourists who were kept away for two summers by the coronavirus epidemic have finally returned and are moving around the city in groups led by a guide or splashing around on city bikes or electric scooters. The terraces are full of people and on the park lawns, picnic groups hum with satisfaction. The schoolchildren walk with their new backpacks, tense in anticipation, somehow more grown-up than in the spring.

A city dweller who has been around the country or the world on vacation may suddenly find that a random trip to the cliffs of your own city to watch the evening come can unexpectedly be the most peaceful moment of the summer.

Also event organizers know that August is the best of months. This week, hundreds of die-hard Justin Bieber fans, or beliebers camped out Kaisaniemi park with tents and air mattresses waiting to enter the Tuesday evening concert. As the evening fell, the cheers of the 20,000 spectators echoed all the way to Sörnäis. On the other hand, in large public events, the music can be limited with amazing precision, so that it can mostly only be heard in the vicinity of the entertainment area.

On Tuesday, foreign football fans appeared in the streets and shops of Helsinki, when the Champions League winner Real Madrid from Spain and the Europa League winner Eintracht Frankfurt from Germany met on Wednesday at the renovated Olympic Stadium in the Uefa Supercup final match. Disturbances were feared, as the Real Madrid-Liverpool Champions League final in May in Paris had started with complete chaos, and Eintracht’s supporters are known for their rowdiness. But the spirit of Helsinki worked again. About ten thousand Eintracht fans and a couple of thousand Real Madrid fans behaved according to the police, surprisingly calmly. “Good-naturedness has described the whole thing,” Chief Commissioner Heikki Porola from the Helsinki Police told HS. Not a single forbidden torch was lit during the fan march, during the match or after it. Beautiful Helsinki was thankedwhich now latte coffees were criticized for being so expensive that one guest thought there was unicorn milk in the coffee.

Today a three-day weekend Flow festival returns to Helsinki after a two-year break to Suvilahti’s old power plant area, and Helsinki’s festive weeks also begin. It’s their turn next week Night of the arts and ten days old Art goes kakappa. On Saturday, a world pop star, British Ed Sheeran performs at the Olympic Stadium. However, the events are not limited to art alone. For example, this Saturday to The Hague at the park philosophy event In Alppiurusupuisto, philosophers discuss time, senses and trust, and at the event you can even borrow a philosopher for a walk.

There is a demand for events after the pandemic and under the pressure of the war in Ukraine. A sense of belonging is needed. For that, lively August Helsinki provides a suitable framework. For some Helsinki residents, the revitalization of the city and the disturbances caused by the events – noise, traffic jams and mess – are quite a problem. But one of the joys of living in cities is that, thanks to various events, the understanding of different subcultures can grow and the border fences of one’s own head fall down.

In the summer of 2016, the Visit Helsinki office responsible for the marketing of the city of Helsinki did a survey on the subject the video. It has been a tradition in Helsinki that the horse festival Tuska and the Pride event for gender and sexual minorities are organized at the same time. In the video, the Tuska horse and the Pride visitor stand silently apart from each other and look firmly at the sea. Then they take each other’s hand. The message is clear: everyone has the right to belong to the city as it is.

Correction 13.8. at 02:17: Corrected Supercup day from Thursday to Wednesday.

The editorials are HS’s positions on a current topic. The articles are prepared by HS editorial staff, and they reflect the journal principle line.