The oldest festival in the Nordic countries, the 54-year-old Jyväskylä Arts Festival, will again fill the city with a broad palette of cultural offerings in the second week of July 7.12.7. The programme includes concerts, non-verbal theatre, club evenings, street theatre and events for kids, too.
The undisputed star of this increasingly international festival, which has spread to different corners of the city centre, is the Portuguese fado singer Mafalda Arnauth.
"Arnauth's appearance at the Jyväskylä Arts Festival is a really big thing. The 34-year-old singer is one of Portugal's five big fado stars. She is a truly celebrated and admired artist both in Portugal and elsewhere in the world," stresses Festival Manager Tanja Rasi.
In addition to high-class concerts and big-appeal club events Jyväskylä Arts Festival has made big efforts for some years now to attract quality acts in the field of non-verbal theatre.
"Where non-verbal theatre is concerned the high point will be Figurentheater Tübingen from Germany, a company that has won a multitude of awards and remains one of the pioneers in puppet theatre art," Rasi continues.
A new item in the festival programme is the street dance event Payback Jam which is very much aimed at young people. Young dancers from over ten countries take each other on at break, hiphop, newstyle and street dance.
At Jyväskylä Arts Festival, a unique event that boasts a long history and multidisciplinary programme, radical shifts in mood and atmosphere in the course of the same day are par for the course. All the events are within walking distance and it is easy to pick and mix from the wide programme.
"During the festival there will be something for all tastes, street events, an international flavour, plenty of colour almost a hundred performances in all," Rasi enthuses.
By Nelli Korpi, Photo by Piia Paananen