Helsinki Festival’s much-loved concert venue Huvila will not be erected for the 2027 and 2028 festivals due to park renovation works by the Tokoinlahti bay. Huvila has been Helsinki Festival’s dedicated venue for pop, rock and music culture from all around the world for more than 30 years. The tent has also become known as a local landmark and a symbol of the last festivals of the summer season and the nights starting to draw in.
The summer of 2026 is the last chance to experience Huvila’s unique atmosphere before the two-year break. Although Huvila will fall silent during the renovation period, the Helsinki Festival will continue to present music culture from around the world and to develop its pop and rock programme, serving those audiences also in the years to come. The plans for the coming years are progressing, and more details will become available in due course.
‘The temporary loss of Huvila to park renovation works that are beyond our control is an obstacle that we intend to overcome in as careful and responsible a way as possible. The venues and programmes of Helsinki Festival have evolved over the course of the event’s history, and this forced break now presents us with a number of dilemmas – as decanting situations always do. We want to keep the music genres associated with Huvila as part of the programme and intend to see the two-year gap caused by the renovation works as a positive challenge and still prioritise artistic inspiration and top talent’, explains Johanna Freundlich, Artistic Director of Helsinki Festival.
The full programme of this year’s Helsinki Festival is due to be published on Wednesday, 25 March. A few highlights of the programme have already been announced: Rufus Wainwright’s majestic classical music work Dream Requiem and the Czech Philharmonic at Helsinki Music Centre, the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan’s visually stunning 13 Tongues at Dance House Helsinki as well as Rufus Wainwright’s solo performance and two joint concerts by vocal groups Rajaton and Club For Five in Huvila.
Helsinki Festival will be held from 18 August to 5 September 2026. The tickets to these, now published shows are on sale: Huvila and Dance House Helsinki / lippu.fi(Link leads to external service) & Musiikkitalo / ticketmaster.fi.(Link leads to external service)
The visits by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre are supported by the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation. Helsinki Festival’s main partners are Elisa and Helsingin Sanomat, and the service partners are Grano, Heku, Rajupaja, and Helsinki Bryggeri.
More information:
●
https://helsinkifestival.fi(Link leads to external service)
● Image bank (no login required):
https://eventshelsinki.imagebank.fi/(Link leads to external service)
● Anna Mäkelä, Communications Manager, Helsinki Events Foundation,
anna.makela@eventshelsinki.fi(Link opens default mail program)/+358 50 5814153
