Press release 15.6.2017
Number of players in Kaustinen still on the rise
Once again, the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival is delighted that there seems to be enough enthusiasm to go to the festival as a player. This year, there are plenty of enthusiastic players from abroad, even from as far away as Australia and Chile.
It is always difficult to calculate the number of players accurately, as the number of people lives on and many perform with several formations.
”Compared to last year, the situation is positive, the number of performing groups has increased again,” says the producer of the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival's pelimanni programme. Salla Seppä. ”Last year, the final number of groups was 528, and now there are 549! On top of that, the Pensioners” Union Summer Days are adding 20 more groups for the weekend."
Only the sky seems to be the limit for the number of players, but in practice, the huge number of participants also requires additional arrangements. Again this year, more venues have been made available, with around thirty different stages.
”This year we have three new venues for players. There's an exhibition space and concerts in the Rock Hall of the People's Arts Centre, and on the roof terrace of the People's Arts Centre there's a Half-Worm Stage, where the music plays as you climb up to the Rock Club. There's also a new covered corner platform in the courtyard of the Kallioklub - during breaks, the audience likes to chill out there and now the music is playing outside too!”
Due to the large number of performers, there will be at least two performances per group this year, instead of three last year.
”There would probably be more willingness to play, but of course there are limits to the number of performances,” Seppä explains. ”However, many people work in more than one band, so you can play a lot during the week, and of course there are endless busking and jams in addition to the performances.”
Visitors from all over the world, from baby to grandpa
Once again, the artistic range of the Pelimann groups is very broad. There are more participants from abroad than last year, with groups coming from at least Estonia, Germany, Ireland, England, Canada, and even Australia and Chile. The age range is from 4 years old to 90 years old. One leitmotif of this year's festival is the Folk Music and Folk Dance Promotion Centre's overall theme of Everybody sings, and there will also be plenty of singing troupes among the players.
”From a cappella quartets to choirs of up to 40 people,” Salla Seppä says. ”Stylistically, the singers” repertoire ranges from traditional folk song arrangements to original compositions and light music, including choirs presenting local traditions and Maija Karhinen-Ilo's Ballad Dancers, which combines medieval ballads with dance steps."
The interfaces between art forms will also be explored. ”The German La Dusch is a three-person professional clown and improvisational theatre group that will perform especially for this festival together with the Finnish band The Aeon,” says Seppä. ”They will also perform with guitarist Joose Ojala and panpipist Helena Taskila. As these two musicians are visually impaired, this performance will also be a dive into delicate communication, how to communicate with all other senses between artists.”
Kaustinen left a deep mark
Among others, the Brunsviga Folk Orchestra, a large group of music professionals and amateurs, will be coming to Kaustinen from Germany, performing both in a large collective production and in smaller groups. Participation and working together is important to the group. The Kaustinen Folk Music Festival has a very special place in the heart of this German ensemble.
”More than 40 years ago I had the opportunity to visit Kaustinen with the Doktorswiese folk music group,” says the leader of the Brunsviga Folk Orchestra. Sasahara Flower Delivery. ”We spent the whole summer in Finland rehearsing and preparing for the festival. The visit made a big impression. We rented a cottage on the lakeside and enjoyed the open landscape and sauna.”
The Kaustinen Folk Music Festival was still the highlight of the trip. ”Everywhere we went, we met musicians who wanted to share their music and enjoy playing. The children performed alongside their teachers in traditional Finnish folk costumes and played everything by heart, no sheet music was needed. One day I heard a sentence that changed my life: ’you know, Kaustinen is actually quite a small village, but there are about 350 people playing the violin here’.”
At that point in his life, Blumenstiehl was a multi-instrumentalist who played all kinds of instruments in his band.
”Every time we came up with a new instrument to enrich the sound, I took up the challenge. But I felt that you had to be a musical genius to play the violin, and I didn't feel I could do it. But when I heard this phrase in the village of Kaustinen and came across the vibrant musical culture dominated by violins, I was left wondering. It is unlikely that musical genius hit just one village, there must be some other explanation for the phenomenon.”
So Sasahara Blumenstiehl took up the violin, and the violin became a companion she could no longer live without. He has set up a music school where he teaches violin playing, leads an orchestra and various projects where children and adults dance, act and play together.
”40 years later, I told this story about Kaustinen at the end of orchestra rehearsals. A violinist searched the internet for more information about the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival and asked me if I was aware of how many similarities there are between the festival and our music making? Children, music, performances, and dancing in the street! Little by little the idea grew inside me, the idea of returning to my roots in Kaustinen. And now we are coming!”
Blumenstiehl sees the circle closing.
”It was only now, watching the videos from the festival, that I realised how much it touched me as a young musician. It was in Kaustinen that the idea of offering violin education at grassroots level to everyone, not just to talented students, was born. Our trip back to Kaustinen is an unexpected but beautiful gift that I enjoyed in advance. And it's not just a gift for myself, but for our entire orchestra, which turns 25 this year.”
For more information and interview requests:
Information Manager Tove Djupsjöbacka
p. 040-6585340
press(at)kaustinen.net