Sami-theme at the Sommelo Folk music festival

Mánudagur, 12 September 2011 07:46

Sommelo festival was this year conducted for the sixth time. In contrast to previous years, this year's festival was based on one particular theme, the Sami traditions in the Nordic countries.

Text: Annika Hagstrøm Photo: Sommelo festival 

The reason for the festival was the management's interest in the old Finnish folk musical genre Runa-song. Pekka Huttu-Hiltunen, who is one of the people behind the festival, points out the value of this particular genre.

- This tradition is extremely valuable and we have collected a lot of research and have a great knowledge of it, but lacked a place to perform and show the public what kind of material we are working with.

It was precisely these ideas that initiated the idea of a folk music festival in the Kainu-area in northern Finland. Although the festival's main focus is on the Runa-song tradition, the festival also includes other traditions in this and nearby areas. Especially Sami tradition has been a field of interest.

- Sami song-traditions are quite similar to the Kainu-area's own traditions. Since we share the locality in the North, this tradition has always aroused interest among us.

What distinguishes this year's festival from the others, is that the festival management has decided to focus on a particular theme. The previous year, the Sami-song tradition was represented, but this year they chose to focus exclusively on this genre. This was done to present the different variations of Sami song tradition at the festival.

- The Sami tradition is one of the most important and oldest traditions we have in Scandinavia. It gives a perspective to the Nordic people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. So in a way, one can say that it binds the Nordic countries together.

Furthermore, although the traditions have similarities, there are also major differences, Pekka says. This, he sees as positive, since the festival wants to show the diversities in the Sami tradition.

- We want to continue with the Nordic theme, and next year we will focus on the Nordic countries, including Greenland, so that we can present this link even wider.

The festival had over 6,000 visitors and lasted from 13. June to 6. July. The last three days took place in Russia.

- It's the same festival, and it is one of our specialties, we have events in both Finland and in Russia.

In Russia, the events had lower visitor numbers than expected, probably because it was held during the week. This has been taken into consideration for next year's festival. The festival would also like to attract more visitors from the other Nordic countries, a goal they hope to achieve with a new marketing strategy.

The festival received support through the Culture and Art Programme.

- The support we received from the program was very important to us. For us, it meant that we had the opportunity to view a wide range of the same traditions and get a larger image of the Nordic musical culture.