Festivals | The festivals organized next to each other have not competed for the Helsinki ice rink, says the organizer of the Sideways festival

Helsinki City Festival transition to the ice rink in Helsinki next summer is not related to the fact that the Sideways festival organized in the area since 2018 is looking for new premises for next year.

“We’ve been thinking about moving elsewhere for a long time, and originally the facilities and the weekend would have been available to us on behalf of Nordis as normal,” says the operational director of Fullsteam, which organizes the Sideways festival Johannes Kinnunen.

“It’s not about anything like that, that our weekend would have gone downhill and gone to another festival.”

There are some different thoughts and ideas about Sideways’ new designs, but no confirmed place or time, says Kinnunen. At this stage, he has nothing concrete to say about his future plans.

“We want to conceptualize the festival in peace.”

Sideways festival and Helsinki City Festival were celebrated side by side this past weekend. Helsinki City Festival was organized from Friday to Saturday at the Töölö football stadium, i.e. the Bolt arena, and Sideways from Thursday to Saturday at the Helsinki Ice Hall.

Due to the Helsinki City Festival, Sideways did not have the Sahara stage this year, which in previous years was located in the south corner of the ice rink.

Worn out during the weekend, the festivals did not disturb each other, and, for example, the sound did not leak between adjacent venues, Kinnunen states.

“Helsinki City Festival did not hinder us in any way.”

However, there was a lot of activity around the festivals. Helsinki police received on friday a few reports of people who had defecated in the courtyards of apartment complexes located near the festival grounds.

“There have been no complaints in our direction about it, and our festival has apparently not been perceived as harmful in the surrounding area,” says Kinnunen.

Sideways was organized this year for the eighth time.

The future of the festival are designed to be new due to, among other things, the increase in the general cost level and the Garden Helsinki large hall planned for the parking area of ​​the Helsinki Ice Hall. The biggest outdoor stages of the festival are located in the parking area.