Kickin’ it at Helsinki Flow Festival

While I was impressed by the Helsinki Flow Festival‘s opening show on Wednesday, especially Joose Keskitalo & Kolmas Maailmanpalo (FI) and Bon Iver (US), it’s now left me in awe.
I am quite the festival enthusiast, but Flow Festival has so many flavors, my artistic palette has suffered from creative overload. And it tastes so good.

It was difficult to decide where to go last night with the well-known Main Stage acts, hand-picked fan favourites at the Cirko (The Other Sound) stage, Nokia Lounge DJs bumping tunes next to a conveniently located bar and delicious food choices.

I spent most of my time exploring the iconic Suvilahti area (a former power plant) that is home for Flow, getting to know the space and enjoying the music.

A few of yesterday’s groups are already staples in my music collection, like Miike Snow (SE, pictured above) and Four Tet + Caribou (UK/CAN).

Other groups, like Elifantree (FI), Kolektif Istanbul (TUR) and Antero Lindgren (FI), are new to me and I look forward to poring over their discographies when I awake from my musical coma on Monday.

Music was certainly the focal point of my day, but I came across lots of cool spots and things to do.

Nokia is the main sponsor of Flow, and one place I always ended up returning to was the Nokia Lounge near the Nokia Blue Tent.

It’s perfectly situated; near enough to the main entrance to be impossible to miss and far enough away to give it its own personal spotlight as you make your way to the different stages and areas.

Unlike with most places at Flow, you don’t go to the Nokia Lounge for its design, which is as modern, sleek and simple as Nokia phones. You’re there for the atmosphere.

Pull up a patch of grass near the lounge and take a moment to decide where to go next – although the more savvy patrons will have already favourited what they want to do and see using the Nokia x Flow app.

At the end of the night, I found many people had returned to the lounge to groove to sounds mixed by American party DJ, Cosmo Baker.

Tonight, I am looking forward to The Black Keys and tasting some of the amazing food. More on that in my finale post tomorrow.

So, if you’re lucky enough to be in Helsinki, catch me dancing at Nokia Lounge or kicking it with a cold one in hand and a smile on my face.

Anna Pope is a student of the world, level 56 music festival patron and volunteer and a candy fanatic who enjoys getting lost in big cities and talking to strangers. She will graduate from university this fall and plans on traveling the world on a shoe string, discovering great new music every step of the way.