Press release 9.5.2017
The Kaustinen Folk Music Festival is being held for the 50th time this year, and the audience is invited to all kinds of parties - including the real thing! Three couples will be married during the summer festival, and there will be plenty of other wedding-related activities during the week.
The importance of the wedding tradition for the vitality of folk music cannot be denied. In western Finland, even large, three-day weddings were attended by the best musicians, and the ceremonies involved hours of continuous playing. In Kaustinen, the wedding ceremonies culminated in a multi-stage purple dance.
”Folk music has played an important ceremonial role in weddings in West Finland,” says the director of the Folk Music Institute. Matti Hakamäki. ”Weddings have kept the tradition alive, just as singing weddings in Karelia contributed to the vitality of singing in that region. Without weddings, folk music might not exist!”
The tradition of big fairs faded in the early 20th century and the tradition was left to individual artists. In a way, Matti Hakamäki sees the festival as a continuation of the role of the festival as a guardian of traditional music. ”In the old days, musicians looked forward to playing at weddings, to show off their skills - that's what you had to practice for. Nowadays the festival acts as a bit of a forum, for many players it's the highlight of the year, a reason to practice.”
From crown workshops to knitting
There will be a wedding-related programme at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival from Thursday 13 July, culminating in the actual wedding day on Saturday 15 July.The programme includes, among other things, a piece by the Kaustinen Youth Society under the bride's skirt, which refers to the wedding tradition of the crown, in that the first wedding day is traditionally danced by young and unmarried people.
Festival visitors can learn about the wedding tradition on Thursday and Friday (13-14 July) by taking part in a bridal crown workshop or other wedding preparations. Purple workshops will be organised for dancers and musicians alike. You can sing wedding songs from Finland and from your own people Pia Raskin with guidance at Friday's singing evening.
The wedding programme culminates on Saturday 15 July, when the three couples and their relatives and the purple dancers join the procession led by the minstrels. The ceremony itself will take place in the arena, where the wedding waltz and the "purple" will be danced. Afterwards, one of the three couples continues the evening in private, while the wedding of two couples continues in the banqueting area. The wedding party will be prepared in the new Kievari tent. The banqueting area will feature a variety of wedding traditions such as the purple and goldfinch dances, a pelican race, as well as court guests. A stitching ceremony, where the couple and their loved ones are seated in chairs and lifted high into the air, will also be part of the programme.
Who gets married at a folk music festival and why?
Three wedding couples are escorted to the port of marriage at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival: Johanna Oravala and Tommi Känsälä From Kaustis, Marika Schaupp and Juho Laasanen from Helsinki and Suvi Pilvi Kivelä and Matt King Inarista. All of them have some roots in the Kaustinen region, and they have taken up the opportunity offered by the festival with an open mind.
Johanna Oravala and Tommi Känsälä are looking forward to an atmospheric event in a relaxed atmosphere. The couple met 14 years ago in Kaustinen, during karaoke. Tommi is originally from Kaustis and Johanna from Toholamm, a neighbouring village. ”We have both attended the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival almost every year since we were little. In addition, our eldest child dances in the Mini-Ottos,” says the future couple.
Juho Laasanen hails from Vetel, and the Kaustinen Music High School graduate met Marika Schaupp, a barefoot gymnast from the city, on the stage of the Music Hall when their choirs performed there together. The groom has been attending the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival since he was born, and he first lured his bride to the festival in 2013, when the relationship was still very new. At the time, Marika was impressed that Juho wanted to invite her to ”the holiest of holies” and introduce her to his family and all his friends. ”The festival has thus played a key role in building our relationship,” say Schaupp and Laasanen.
There is also a story about Kaustinen from before the relationship. Marika's father's wife Pirkko Määttälä, daughter of Viljo S. Määttälä, the late president of the Folk Music Festival last year, advised Marika to go to the Kaustinen festival when she was single, to see if she could find someone there! ”Well, I'm not that desperate,” Marika said in response. ”Oh, how wrong that assumption turned out to be later on”, the couple smiles. ”We had already thought about organising a wedding, but we were still missing something that would make our wedding special. So thanks to the festivals for this crazy idea and a great opportunity that came like a gift!”
Finnish Suvi Pilvi Kivelä and English Matt King found each other online, and now live together in Inari. Suvi's father's family roots go back to Kaustinen, where he still lives, and Suvi first attended the festival when she was one. Her mother's family is from the neighbouring village of Vetel, so festivals were always a central part of her summer holidays as a child. Although life circumstances and places of residence have changed since then, the folk music festivals have stayed with her over the years. For Matt, who moved to Finland last autumn, next summer's festival will be his first.
”Originally, we dreamed of a wedding ceremony under the bridal veil at Kraatari in Kaustinen, Suvi's paternal grandmother's birthplace, which will be restored by summer 2017 into a crafts museum that honours the traditions of the Wirkkala family,” Kivelä and King say. ”When we heard that the festival was looking for couples for the crown wedding at the festival next summer, we thought this was an incredible coincidence that would perfectly align our plans. We both value tradition, family, fun and music, so what could be better than this? The idea of celebrating our special day in Kaustinen and at the festival with people we love feels unique, personal and meaningful. We can't wait!”
The Kaustinen Folk Music Festival's Pidot event is part of the Finland 100 programme.
For more information and interview requests:
Head of Information Tove Djupsjöbacka
p. 040-6585340
press(a)kaustinen.net