Not really going with the flow

(Originally published by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland)

I expected a very organised weekend just as my two weeks in Finland so far have been well organised. Yet the artists who did actually play at the music event, Flow Festival, had to fight against a tide of problems.
Tears stream at not-so-Finnish festival
Kanye's blonde horde, "without you there can be no me," he said about his audience, but I think he was just thanking all of his fair fans (Photo: Alistair Anderson)Kanye's blonde horde, "without you there can be no me," he said about his audience, but I think he was just thanking all of his fair fans (Photo: Alistair Anderson)

Many people will remember the festival for the hip hop star who cried in front of one of the more reserved crowds on his tour schedule, however. Before I can speak about Kanye West's very strong performance, I must get to the mess around the weekend's events.

Flow Festival is an annual weekend of live music in Helsinki, Finland. It marks the end of summer for much of the youth, which is why the first problem in my list, holds even more weight in my opinion. Never mind that the bands who signed up for the festival were actually not that impressive on paper, the prices of food, water and alcohol; the things that keep festival goers interested were disgraceful.

I come from South Africa, where beers are about half the price of beers in Finland, but people earn about half of what Finns earn, but to charge anyone 7 euros for a drink is disgusting.

I made other plans so that I could enjoy my festival. Unfortunately, once I had managed myself around the drink and chow challenge, I heard that popular Swedish singer, Lykke Li, had pulled out of the festival, because she had fallen ill suddenly. This meant that Iron and Wine played a longer set - which turned out to be one of the strongest sets I had seen from any bands in a couple of years, so I was happy. Nevertheless, Flow must take some blame as there had been rumours of Lykke Li not showing up because of "over- touring". Flow knew one of their headliners could pull out and yet they had no back up plan; very poor for a festival which is gaining praise in central europe.

It was pleasing then that Empire of the Sun gave a solid performance. I am not a fan of the band but their elaborate Japanese Science Fiction set up, akin to Final Fantasy XIII, X, XI and so on, was interesting.

They were memorable on a night that also featured the improving US band, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

At least the headlining hip hop artist, Kanye West, did not falter. Q-Tip, a rapper with far more experience, but maybe fewer fans under 35 years of age, pulled out on Friday. He was replaced by MF Doom, a sometimes revered hip hopper, but one Finn I spoke to said he was somewhat disappointing.

I was amazed then at how fresh and coordinated Mr West was. He started 45 minutes late, which meant he ran into British musical maestro, James Blake's set, for which I blame the organisers again. Nevertheless, Kanye played for just over two hours, in a multiple act system, featuring stunning ballerinas and an awesome backdrop of twisted images.

Most shocking for many people was that he cried during the final couple of songs, including his letter to his mother, who he lost a few years ago. It was uncanny to see a crowd of blonde women, who had been quite rigid throughout the bands' performances, until Kanye showed up, balling their eyes out too.

Kanye also mentioned something about how the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the US showed anything was possible. The Obama presidency has been a bit dull for me lately but Kanye was not. He played all of his hits and some other tracks and he really believed in himself.

Hopefully Flow will move in an organised manner next year, however, so that other singers can impress too.

Helsinki - Tidbits

The architecture in Helsinki is not particularly pompous.

Before I did research about or visited Finland, the name of its capital, Helsinki was the coolest word I had heard yet.

I think I was in my teens when I heard of Helsinki for the first time. I asked a Danish friend about it. i was learning about Scandinavian nations. I could appreciate what Swedish and Norweigan people were like but I thought Finnish people were similar to Eskimos who looked like Jari Litmanen.

What about the name, Helsinki, intrigued me? It was like no other Scandinavian word to me. Finnish is unlike other Nordic languages which is why. Perhaps, the "Hel" part sounded like "hell" and "sinki" was cute. I've been told Finns joke often about the name. I came up with Helstinki while I was in the city. The city did not smell bad at all. The air was fresh. In any case, my rhyme was based off of "Brass Monkey" by The Beastie Boys, hence: Helstinki, Helstinki, inki.

Helsinki is the centre of the Helsinki Region, a functional urban region of about 1.3 million inhabitants and 738,000 jobs. Helsinki is in the region of Uusimaa, in Southern Finland.

Helsinki felt like Cape Town. It had quite a few tourists wandering about - although to be fair these tourists may only come from as far away as Estonia and Sweden. Swedish people have a darker complexion than Finns do. The Swedes' hair is also more often darker. I have not visited Sweden yet but from reading about Swedes and seeing some of them on TV or a golf course, I have mad some conclusions. A Finn even told me Swedes were more stylish and relaxed than Finns. Both nationalities are probably full of blonde people - Finland is. Even in fairly cosmopolitan Helsinki, the people are mostly blonde.

I did not see many Africans, Indians or that many Chinese people. There were a few people who I assumed were Japanese. Japanese people have visited Helsinki for years. Many Japanese are similar to Finns as they are quiet, shy and work diligently. This is an observation: you get loud people in every country and culture but stereotypes such as Finnish people being quiet come out when those people are met by foreigners.

Helsinki is full of pretty but not extravagant architecture. This is typical of Northern Europe and many Protestant areas. It seems to be a well-designed city and the public transport is excellent. I like being able to catch a bus home at 3am. Yes, the quality of clubs and other night life does not quite excite me that much but Helsinki gets away with having pretty parks which people can enjoy relaxing in at night in summer.

I would like to experience Helsinki in winter; I am sure there are enjoyable indoor activities then. People say that the winter is so bleak that people become suicidal but even though it may bot be very pleasant, people get through it and I'm sure they have fun doing it.

There will be many more posts about Helsinki, a city I spent a couple of brilliant weeks in.