What brings me to Finland?

After having spent the last few summers working in Helsinki before deciding to move here permanently, I am no stranger to the question “What brings you to Finland?” So, you would think that after being asked such a question more times than I have had hot dinners, I would have a perfectly rehearsed “Here’s one I prepared earlier” answer to reel off at any given moment. The reality is far from it. I still find it virtually impossible to articulate a reply, let alone one that whoever is asking appears to understand. Common assumptions such as “Are you studying here?” or “Do you have a Finnish boyfriend?” are met with a resounding “No”, and as soon as I start to try and explain that I moved here for no reason other than I like it here, I am immediately met with a look of amazement that I have not yet been carted off.

The next question is usually, “Where are you from?” and my reply, ‘England’, only ever seems to reinforce their belief that I am completely mad. Why on earth would anyone want to move from England to Finland? Or “Horrible rainy, cold Finland” as it is more often than not described. I could have sworn that it was our (English) weather that had the wet and unpredictable reputation?

The weather is the favourite and perhaps the single topic of conversation that binds our nations and so, try as I might to convince the Finns that I like long winters, cold springs and given a choice I would always choose cold over hot, my reasoning does not appear to cut the mustard. And here I am, reinforcing the opinion that the English have a predilection for talking (albeit nonmeteorologically) about the weather! Which conveniently brings me on to another fascination and yet another reason for why I am apparently insane to want to live in Finland.

London. To those who have not heard of my hometown, Brighton, my description of it as being approximately one hour by train from London never fails to extract swoons of “oh I LOVE London”. Suggesting that despite it being 1777 when Samuel Johnson famously exclaimed to James Boswell, "Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford”, such an opinion is still (world) widely held.

In order to save myself from the resulting feeling that I have been banging my head against a brick wall for the duration of such conversations, I have considered abandoning my attempts to pinpoint exactly why I love Finland and choosing the alternative option; a more hostile reply involving a venomous remark such as “because I hate England”. Easier for me to express? Most likely. Truthful? No. Furthermore, it is probably just as incomprehensible as my original choice. So despite my deliberations I am still ill-prepared for the dreaded “why Finland?” question. As they say, one man’s meat is another man’s poison, but then again, they also say that the grass is always greener on the other side, but for me? I think it really is…

Daisey Cheyney is an English girl in Helsinki who moved to Finland after graduating from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Laguage and Linguistics. She likes cold days, dark nights, strong coffee and never-ending stories.

http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/expat-view/4063-what-brings-me-to-finland.html

Ankkarock Festival 2008 Korso Park / Vantaa, Finland

Ankkarock Festival

Ankkarock Festival 2008

01.08.2008 Korso Park / Vantaa

Von: Daisey Cheyney


The sun was shining as around 17000 people trooped towards the Ankkarock festival area in Korso and my first port of call was the Korsostage where Finnish legends Hanoi Rocks made a great start to the weekend. Michael Monroe was of course donning his customary eye-catching attire, including feather boa and more sparkles than you can shake a stick at! With their unrivalled enthusiasm and energy of artists half their age, they definitely set the tone for the rest of the day, getting the whole crowd singing along to old favourites including Don’t You Ever Leave Me and Back to the Mystery City as well as tracks from their latest album Street Poetry such as Fashion.

Next it was over to the Rockstage to see the Californian psycho-billies Tiger Army. They are hugely popular with the Finns and tickets to their shows earlier in the year sold out almost instantly. Their performance here at Ankkarock provided a perfect example of why. The rockabilly and psychobilly influences, the imposing stand up bass playing of Geoff together with the originality of Nick 13’s bittersweet vocals bring a refreshing sound to the punk-rock genre which has recently become, well, less than inspiring.

Kent played the closing gig of their 17-date summer tour on the Korsostage. Anticipation was mounting in front of the veiled stage and as the black fabric dropped, the crowd was launched straight into the energetic opening of Stenbrott and almost immediately the crowd were becoming strong competitors to the band themselves in the enthusiasm ranks! Kent treated the crowd to a new song for the tour, Håll Ditt Huvud Högt, new versions of Om du Var Här and Dom Andra, and a three song encore too!

Continuing with the Swedish theme, next up were The Hives. Admittedly, having previously not been a particular fan of the Swedish rockers, I was more than a little impressed. In their identical outfits, looking like cheeky school boys, they whipped the already overexcited crowd into a complete frenzy with their overwhelmingly energetic performance, not to mention their oh-so-postmodern freeze frame where the band resembled an exhibit from Madame Tussaud’s. Surprisingly for me, they even managed to inject a certain ‘je ne sais quois’ into Hate to Say I Told You So a song I previously considered overplayed and found generally irritating! By the time they played Tick Tick Boom I was a complete convert and dancing like a madman (or Nicholaus!) with the rest of the crowd.

As the first day drew to a close, headliners HIM played on the Korsostage and judging by the size of the crowd, an increasingly rare performance in their home country was eagerly anticipated by all. The amount of screaming and chanting would never have given it away, but it wasn’t until after the musical melting-pot Sleepwalking Past Hope that the band really started to warm up and sound more like the HIM we all love. The punchy intro to guaranteed live favourite Soul on Fire resounded across the festival area, and with songs such as Razorblade Kiss and Poison Girl from their earlier albums following, the dullish beginning was forgotten. Their ultimate song of the festival, Rebel Yell had the crowds screaming for “more, more, more” and the Saturday of Ankkarock definitely ended on a high note.

Sunday’s weather was certainly the perfect weather for ducks and with the vast majority wearing ‘emergency’ ponchos (or popliinitakki!) you’d be forgiven for thinking that there was some kind of Ankka-army... or an Apulanta-army! The popularity of the Finnish band hasn’t waned over the years and with their catchy radio-friendly songs it’s no wonder an excitable crowd congregates in front of the Puistostage. Playing a selection of songs from across their discography, you can’t help but sing along (admittedly in appalling Finnish!) with songs such as their 1996 breakthrough track, Mitä Kuuluu and the more recent Kesä EP.

Despite the drizzle getting heavier, the weather did not impede Danish rockers, Volbeat, who are increasingly becoming known for their great live performances providing a refreshingly original mixture of heavy metal and rock and roll from the 50s and 60s, summer radio favourite Radio Girl and their renowned cover of Dusty Springfield’s classic, I Only Wanna Be With You together with harder songs such as Sad Man’s Tongue and the attention was no long on the rain and everyone’s feet were moving.

At the Rockstage, Soilwork attempted to lift the dampened spirits of an increasingly wet crowd and definitely got some festival goers energetically moving especially with songs such as Bastard Chain and Exile but with their melodeath sound and the fact that their set overlapped with Apocalyptica, Soilwork failed to engage my attention. So I made my way over to the Puistostage to catch the famous four cellos and a drum kit. This time the band had a little something extra for their fans in the shape of Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica who performed I Don’t Care and I’m not Jesus to an appreciative crowd. After the sentimental Bittersweet, the customary Metallica covers such as Search and Destroy and Enter Sandman, an element no Apocalyptica performance would be without, got the crowd singing along despite the depressing weather!

The festival drew to a close and the rain continued to get heavier, yet Opeth still drew a sizeable crowd to the Korsolava stage. In my experience, the opinion of these Swedish death-metallers is mixed; some considering their sound to be somewhat inaccessible, a point which is perhaps due to the diversity of each of their albums, and others considering them to be one of the essential metal bands of today. The opinion at Ankkarock was definitely the latter and with songs such as Melancholy, Porcelain Heart and the undeniably hard hitting Heir Apparent, Opeth’s combination of the empyreal and the brutal made for an exhilarating end to a wet, yet wonderful weekend.



http://www.musicheadquarter.de/v1/konzert-festival-event-berichte/ankkarock-festival-korso-park-vantaa_448.html