Music Sideways brought together music fans of all ages, with no vibes at all

SidewaysThe basic idea of ​​the festival became clear at the box office.

Usually, a media representative coming to work at the festival will be given an exceptional badge, such as a bracelet in a different color, sometimes with a laminated patch hanging around their neck.

I received the same bracelet from the ticket office of the Helsinki Ice Rink as everyone who bought their tickets.

On the festival website, the matter was twisted from iron wire for safety.

“At Sideways, every festival guest is equal. There are no VIP tickets on sale at the festival, and you can’t buy a better festival experience with the money. ”

On Sunday Sideways, which ended at dawn, was not the first major festival of the summer. However, it was the first major festival after a long crown break where the ticket buyer had known they would end up in the same confined space with people who like different music.

Sideways has survived with its own concept for years, although the event had to be moved from the Wholesale Market to the Helsinki Ice Rink and the parking lot of the hall.

This year Sideways’s program was able to roughly split in two.

There was a lot of rock and retro-inspired rock played by guitar bands to suit the preferences of middle-aged music fans, and music made and favored by the younger generation on the other side, rooted in electronic dance music and hip-hop.

However, the musical preferences of younger people are no longer as genre-bound as they used to be, and this has been understood in the design of Sideways ’program.

Itself the worst avalanche of folk singers accompanying the guitar subsided a few years ago, but the British singer climbed on the main stage on Friday Passengerreal name Michael Rosenbergshowed that Ed Sheeran is not the only artist to have gained much popularity without a band or laptop.

Compared to Sheeran, the popularity of the Passenger has certainly been less, as the Passenger has only one song, Let Her Go, which has received over a billion listens on Spotify, and ten years have passed since its release. On this scale, the Passenger could be called the miracle of one hit, which the artist himself highlighted in his interludes.

Anyway, the singer’s performance was closer to stand-up comedy than serious neo-folk. Passenger’s performance included and reflected the professionalism of the entertainer, which had developed over the years, and the lack of fine songs on the part of the audience could not be considered for so long.

In sunshine called Ryley Walker a lightly Grateful Dead-spirited Americana would have fit well into the repertoire of the early Ruisrocks of the early 1970s. Walker performed uncomplicatedly and praised the quality of Finnish tap water, among other things, but during the weekend it became clear that it is not always worth looking for stalling hippie rock from the United States, because the quality of local production is superior.

On Saturday, it was first shown by Circle, who has been touring the British recently Richard Dawson with. Last fall, Dawson and Circle also released Spiritalbum, which was one of the finest domestic rock records of the year, and the sharpest in Circle’s own rich production.

Circle has matured over the decades into an amazingly toned band, but it hasn’t lost any of the brutal power with which it emerged in the mid-1990s. At Dawson, the band has found an equal soloist who makes music in the same spirit.

While the music includes old sources of inspiration, Dawson’s British folk proge of the 1970s, and Circle’s German krautrock and old metal, their own sound is unique and carefully and understandingly crafted.

In the darkness of the ice rink, a great mix also helped here. At its best, the soundtrack plays four electric guitars at the same time, all of which could be distinguished from each other, even though the masses of drums, bass and keyboard were roaring below.

After the circle on the main stage, the Swedish Dungen continued a bit of the same theme, even with twenty years of experience. If Circle’s cadence is white and strongly European, then Dungen’s psychedelic rock features a groove of black music, and a guitarist Reine Fisken through the extracts also a little Jimi Hendrix. The new songs heard on Sideways showed that Dungen has also remained creative and is not stuck in a nostalgic loophole.

What about then that younger generation of music?

At least in Sideways, it turned out that Finland has an authentic Afro-Finnish hip-hop culture, born from the conditions of its own country, and it has risen to the top. Yeboyah. He has previously been known as part of the DREAMGIRLS band, but last year released his first solo album Butterfly effects showed that Yeboyah is doing well on his own.

The same own look and strong vision came through in front of the audience as well. In her texts, Yeboyah does not isolate herself behind phrases and clichés in the rap tradition, but clearly and unequivocally tells about the world from the perspective of a non-white Finnish woman.

Although Yeboyah is a Rapper, his music also has a lot of r & b. It is at its strongest in the final track of the debut album Black girl with magic, which is perhaps the finest r & b ever made in Finland with its gospel choirs. With the choir, it echoed in Sideways on Saturday as well.

Or actually echoed the night before Rosa Costen at a gig, without a choir though. For good reason, as Coste is the second soloist in the recorded version of the song.

If Yeboyah represents the urban edge of Finnish hip-hop, then Rosa Coste from Rovaniemi brings in the voice of a smaller city. And humor that is not too often heard at raps.

Speaking a supple northern dialect, Coste is a captivating performer. Although he is not yet technically close to finished, he has a rare joy of performance and an inherent charisma. In a world of squirrels wrestling with true and formal issues, it is as fresh as spring water in the heat.

On Saturday night, the countries of Helsinki in the center of Helsinki also experienced a rare encounter with a heavy series, while Haloo Helsinki played at the Olympic Stadium! and only about 200 yards from the Sideways main stage as the last performer sang Paula Vesala.

The good quality of contemporary event planning is illustrated by the fact that at least Vesala’s gig from the stadium did not involve anything.