Helsinki Festival performances cancelled

Helsinki Festival will cancel all scheduled performances as of 20 August against the backdrop of worsening coronavirus situation.

The Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland in a decision on Friday said that from 20 August public events may only be organised by separating audiences into blocks, said the City of Helsinki in a press release on Friday.

Helsinki Festival venues do not allow audiences to be separated as required. This means that once the decision enters into force, it will not be possible to hold concerts and dance performances in the Huvila Festival Tent, Musiikkitalo and the Cable Factory as planned.

The entire concert series in the Huvila Festival Tent will be cancelled. Persons who have already bought tickets for these events will be contacted as soon as possible.

Helsinki Festival will open on 19 August with Philip Glass’s Heroes Symphony and Brian Eno’s 77 million paintings exhibition in Helsinki Music Centre. The exhibition will remain open until 5 September. The opening concert can also be experienced by live stream in cooperation with a leading Finnish language newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

“We greatly regret having to cancel the carefully planned events and apologise both to performers and the public alike. With regard to the requirement to separate the audience, the decision of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland differs significantly from the guidelines of Pirkanmaa and Southwest Finland, which are similarly at the spreading stage of the virus and which only require safe distancing. The Communicable Diseases Act contains no mention of separating the audience into blocks as a measure during any pandemic stage,” said Helsinki Events Foundation CEO Stuba Nikula.