Flow festival in 3s: how to get the most out of Europe’s most uniquely situated festival

Helsinki’s Flow festival is nearly upon us: the weekend after next (9 – 11 Aug), over 150 acts will descend on the Finnish capital’s Suvilahti former power plant, full of mammoth brick halls and beautiful old gasometers, for the festival’s 20th anniversary. We will be bringing you news and reviews from the festival, but ahead of that, for those already with tickets and others who are tempted by a last-minute Nordic jaunt, here are the top three things to see, places to see them, and things to eat while you do.

3 Spaces

It’s rare that festival stages themselves feel iconic, or like their existence elevates the quality of whatever act graces them. Perhaps Glastonbury’s Pyramid does it, but otherwise, a festival stage is just a temporary lattice of scaffolding and that weird silvery canvas stuff, right? Well, Flow begs to differ, boasting genuinely original performance areas. Accordingly, try and see at least one thing in each of these spaces:

1. Balloon 360 Stage [lead photo]: this steel circular amphitheatre at the far end of the site has bands play in the round beneath a dreamily lit 40-foot-wide balloon and a wraparound video screen. Set away from the rest of the festival’s hubbub, and largely programming jazz, ambient and soul over the weekend, the stage is a perfect oasis of calm.
2. The Other Sound: housed in a huge brick building, this is a predominantly seated, moodily lit experimental hideaway that’s another escape hatch away from the more traditional festival happening elsewhere, but its uniqueness stems mainly from the programming: like a scaled-up Cafe OTO, The Other Sound investigates the outer reaches of contemporary classic music and sound art, offering a glipse of a musical world seldom seen at big music festivals.
3. Tuulikello: the main gasometer on the festival site is transformed during Flow’s occupation into an art gallery, hosting an single, grand site-specific installation in the same vein as the Tate Modern’s turbine hall. Last year it was a climate crisis clock thing telling us exactly when we’re all going to die, which might’ve been a bit on the doomy side, but the scale and ambition is an impressive thing to encounter between bands.

3 Big Acts

Flow’s gone broad this year when it comes to the big-font acts gracing its poster, opting to take in pop, indie, punk and electronica across its headline slots. You’ll know all the songs in these acts’ sets, but here’s why you should make the effort specifically:

1. Pulp (Sunday, 9:30, main stage): a perhaps surprising kink of Pulp’s 45-year-long gigography is that they’ve never played in Helsinki before – not even during their mid-90s imperial phase that took them around the world several times. That debut will lend a sense of occasion to their set, as will their billing as Sunday night headliners: as their towering 1998 Glastonbury performance in the same spot will attest, nobody knows how to close a festival with such ecstatic and collective warmth than Jarvis and co.
2. PJ Harvey (Saturday, 8:15, main stage): if late-period Peej is somewhat sombre affair on record these days, that’s upended on stage on her current tour, particularly in the second half of sets that have spanned her entire discography, taking in her most scabrous moments from Dry and Rid of Me with electrifying effect, as well as the most chilling tracks from modern classic Let England Shake. The sun will set behind the main stage during Harvey’s show on the Saturday night, which should provide a suitably cinematic backdrop for one of the all-time greats.
3. Janelle Monae (Friday, midnight, Silver Arena): Flow will receive a liberal sprinkling of genuine Hollywood stardust at midnight on Day 1 of the festival when Monae takes to the huge covered Silver Arena. In contrast to her more indie contemporaries, Monae’s shows leave nothing to chance, glitzy West End show-style, rattling through whip-smart high-kicking choreography, razor-sharp funk musicianship and, of course, vagina trousers.

3 Under the radar

One of the pleasures of Flow is that even the most switched-on music fans won’t know half the acts on the festival’s undercard, meaning new discoveries await round every corner. You could very happily bounce around the compact festival site in the opening hours of each day taking in all sorts of local punk bands and adventurous bookings from around the world, but here are three worth investigating:

1. 1. Verneri Pohjola (Saturday 4:00, Balloon stage): one of the opening acts on the Saturday is also one of Finland’s leading jazz trumpeters, whose smoky, tranquil pieces should suit the blissed-out in-the-round setting of the Balloon stage. UK pianist Kit Downes will join his band for what could be a perfect way to ease into an aurally busy day.
   2. NYKY Ensemble plays Kaija Saariaho (Saturday, 6:00, The Other Sound): Kaija Saariaho, who died last year aged 70, was one of Finland’s greatest-ever composers, making startlingly beautiful but also delicate and abstract music that inspired the likes of Johnny Greenwood’s film score projects as well as the more textural, tense parts of of post-rock acts like Godspeed You Black Emperor. Here, Helsinki’s NYKY Ensemble will perform a set of Saariaho’s electro-acoustic works in what promises to be a rather transporting hour, and, crucially, about as far away from the big-box meat-and-potatoes indie-rock festival experience as you can get.
   3. Zöllner–Roche Duo (Sunday, 8:15, The Other Sound): This Canadian–German clarinet/accordion/electronics duo is another bold booking by the ever-fearless curators of The Other Sound stage. Their explorations of musical shape and drone are laced with delicate melodies and the sort of virtuosic ear-opening playing that makes you wonder how those instruments could ever sound like that. Scheduled in the hour while the main stage next door is switching over from the sleek disco of Jessie Ware to the Britpop euphoria of Pulp, pop in to The Other Sound to see something entirely different.

3 Things to Eat and Drink

In line with the trend of many European festivals now, Flow prides itself on its formidable food and drink, particularly its commitment to not serving any red meat or poultry, and every food stall offering at least one vegan dish. In contrast to many UK festivals, it’s pretty much impossible to eat badly here, but here are three particularly delicious things to sample:

1. Finnish Long Drink: invented for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Long Drink is a gin-grapefruit-lemon concoction that might be the most refreshing thing you’ll ever taste, and is the locals’ favourite.
2. The alcohol-free bar: perhaps aware that booze in Finland is punishingly expensive, Flow has an entire tented bar dealing exclusively in low- and no-alcohol drinks. But this isn’t the sort of weirdly medicinal-tasting AF beers and overly sugary mocktails that seem like an afterthought in most places – here, you can sample genuinely complex and strange beverages to suit almost every palate.
3. Patisserie Teemu Auran Pullabiili: a trip to Finland wouldn’t be complete without a cinnamon bun. Patisserie Teemu’s pink truck will be parked up on the path out of the festival site, dispensing these and all sorts of other baked delights that make the perfect end-of-the-night treat for the subway ride home.