The Kaustinen Folk Music Festival will reach a milestone when the festival is held for the 50th time this summer. To celebrate, the festival is inviting everyone to the centenary celebrations - on the opening day, Monday 10 July, the festival will offer free admission to all. For the other days, advance ticket sales will start on 1 November 2016.
As Kaustinen celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, it also marks the 100th anniversary of independent Finland. Finnish traditional culture and the history of folk music will be strongly presented at the folk music festival, and the theme of the celebration, ”Pidot”, will also be drawn from the festive culture. These festival celebrations will last for a full seven days, with the last Sunday also being a full day of events!
For the centenary year, the traditional choice of one themed country will be abandoned and the whole of Finland will be invited to the banquet. Other celebrations will include wedding traditions and children's parties. The annual theme of the Folk Music and Dance Promotion Centre, ”Everyone sings”, will also be part of the programme. As usual, the first programme will be presented during the Folklandia cruise in January 2017.
Modern traditional wedding - get married at a festival!
The Crown Wedding will be celebrated at this summer's festival over three days from Thursday to Saturday, with the actual wedding day on Saturday 15 July 2017. Couples are now being sought who wish to get married during the festival, taking elements from the Crown Wedding tradition and renewing the tradition.
The tradition includes a purple dance, a wedding ceremony under the bridal veil and a kaustis catered banquet. Non-wedding couples can also enjoy the crown wedding tradition - open workshops on Thursday and Friday include making bridal crowns and learning how to make purple. The modernisation of the tradition is also reflected in the choice of either a priest or a judge as the celebrant - even non-church-going couples can apply. Another important change to the tradition is that in the modern version of Kaustinen there are several couples and the wedding is shared by all.
Kaustinen home album collects memories of guests
Over the decades, the traditions of the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival and the festival guests' own festivals have been recorded in the archives of the Folk Music Institute as well as in private photo folders. In the Kaustinen Home Album project, retrospectives and family albums meet: a photo exhibition and an electronic photo folder are built into a collection of historical and contemporary memories of the most important folk music event in the province and the country.
The project will juxtapose the archive images from the festivals with images from home albums taken at the festivals, both through an electronic photo folder that will be updated throughout the year and through a photo exhibition during the festival. What makes the project exceptional is the way it is carried out: the material - the pictures and the memories that go with them - is mainly gathered from people who have photographed festival memories over the decades of the festival. These treasures from home archives are supplemented by festival photos from the archive of the Folk Music Institute. The collection of material has now begun.
The electronic photo folder will be published on 1 January 2017 and will be updated throughout the 2017 festival year. Some of the collected photos will be selected for a photo exhibition in the festival area during the Folk Music Festival from 10 to 16 July 2017. The photos will be collected primarily in electronic format. For further information, please visit the festival's website www.kaustinen.net.
Pelimanni registration kicks off
1.11.2016 also Kaustinen pelimanni-registration starts. The majority of Kaustinen's performers will come to the party in a spirit of volunteerism, the so-called "pelimannie". According to the pelimann conditions, pelimanns and groups of performers who are selected as official performers will be offered a full week festival pass and benefits for accommodation and food in addition to the gigs.
Performing groups can register on the festival website or by post. The first registration period is 1.11.2016-31.1.2017. The second, complementary period will run from 1 February to 30 March 2017.
For the coming year, there will also be a separate call for performers from the Finnish Pensioners“ Union member associations as part of the festival's cooperation with the Finnish Pensioners” Union. The "From ancestors to feasts" cooperation project will include a national environmental artwork in the festival area, an exhibition, intergenerational workshops and a regional song concert. The application period for pensioner groups is open from 1 November to 31 December 2016.
50. KAUSTINEN FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL 10.-16.7.2017
Kaustinen Folk Music Festival advance ticket sales have started: tickets are on sale Ticket office >>>
Data collection guidelines Kaustinen home album >>>
Pelimanni registration is open >>>
Separate search for groups of pensioners is open >>>
More information:
Sini Keränen, Executive Director
sini.keranen(a)kaustinen.net
p. 040 1729 566
Pro Kaustinen ry - Kaustinen Folk Music Festival