Helsinki Festival 2009

 Helsinki Festival is an multi-arts festival held annually in late August – early September. It takes in music, theatre, dance, the visual arts, cinema and city events featuring both Finnish and foreign artists of international repute. In 2009 the festival is held from 13 to 30 August . The festival kicks off with a visit by classical music legend Pierre Boulez, who arrives in Helsinki with his French Ensemble Intercontemporain, led by Music Director Susanna Mälkki.  A Helsinki Festival and Korjaamo Theatre joint venture, the Stage Helsinki Theatre Festival has established itself as a major European theatre event. The Helsinki Festival dance programme, created by Artistic Advisor Kenneth Kvarnström is headlined by the Shaolin combat acrobatics-inspired Sutra and features Kvarnström’s Destruction Song choreographed for his own ensemble. Circus rolls into town in the shape of a Russian clown troupe. Semianyki delivers laughter therapy for the whole family with a joyously anarchic twist. A total of 17 international and Finnish acts will be taking to the stage at the festival’s legendary Huvila venue. The Huvila programme treats audiences to a stellar line up of world music’s leading stars from the Malian Oumou Sangare to the L’Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio from Italy. Top Finnish performers include Maija Vilkkumaa, celebrating her 20-year career and the ever-popular Scandinavian Music Group. Adding American flavour to the proceedings will be jazz musicians Joshua Redman and Paquito d’Rivera together with Wilco, here making their Finnish debut appearance. The Huvila season will be brought to a close with a joint performance by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. The Amos Anderson Art Museum is to play host to a joint exhibition by Susanne Gottberg and Markus Kåhre. Titled A Dialogue, the duo’s unique spatial exercise was many years in the making. The cinema programme culminates in a retrospective of the work of the Japanese film director Nagisa Oshima, while the free outdoor cinema screen-ings at the Kinopiha celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall.  The Children’s Festival programme features four Finnish premieres. Junior audiences will love Compañía Kaari Martin’s fresh and flamenco-inspired take on the iconic Pippi Longstocking and Glims & Gloms Dance Company’s new interpretation of the classic Finnish fairytale Pessi and Illusia. At the Suvilahti big top, kids and adults alike will be whisked away on a whirlwind tour of Vietnam in the company of a water puppetry troupe. The Night of the Arts takes over Helsinki on Friday 21 August – programme to be announced in early August. Flow Festival returns to Suvilahti from 14 to 16 August and the Poetry Moon shines on the city from 26 to 27 August. The Viapori Jazz Festival grooves Suomenlinna Island from 26 to 29 August, while the Art goes Kapakka festival makes its presence felt in Helsinki restaurants from 13 to 22 August.