Helsinki Festival 2023
Helsinki Festival 2023

Helsinki Festival is the largest arts festival in the Nordic countries, held annually in late summer. The festival’s aim is to make art accessible for all. The programme features classical and world music, theatre, dance, circus and visual arts as well as a range of urban events. The next edition of Helsinki Festival is celebrated on 17.8. - 3.9.2023.
Helsinki Festival operates under the auspices of the Helsinki Events Foundation, established by the City of Helsinki. The executive body of the foundation is its Board. Members of the Board are elected by the Helsinki City Board to serve a two-year term.
Helsinki Festival is the main event of the year with the participation of world classical music stars.
If you are interested in this schedule leave a request. As soon as the playbill is announced, we will let you know immediately, and you will be the first to get the tickets.
In each section, you will get the best seats for the same price - centrally located and in front rows.
We provide seats with the best acoustics only.
Even in the world's best concert halls and opera houses, the listening conditions can vary greatly, and some seats are better than others. Sometimes nearby seats have very different viewing and listening conditions.
Usually, these seats are sold out soon and available for early bookers only. We guarantee that you will receive full-view seats only.
Detailed information about the 2023 Festival will be added later. Please read about the previous "Helsinki Festival 2022":
The Helsinki Festival ended at the weekend. It featured hundreds of events, including the Night of the Arts programme, which made a much-anticipated comeback, and several world and Finnish premieres. The new Huvilanranta terrace area attracted an estimated 50,000 visitors and will be built next to Huvila again next year. Marko Ahtisaari will continue as the Festival’s Artistic Director until 2024.
Helsinki Festival was celebrated for over three weeks between 12 August and 4 September. Many of the events in the abundant festival programme took place at Huvila, Helsinki Music Centre, Dance House Helsinki and Cable Factory. After a two-year break, the Night of the Arts made its much-anticipated return and spread a great atmosphere across the city.
Festival highlights included international top-level performances by artists such as Wayne McGregor, Olafur Eliasson and Jamie xx’s Tree of Codes and Boris Charmatz’s 10000 gestures at Dance House Helsinki and Chineke! Orchestra with soloist cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason at the Music Centre. In addition to numerous Finnish premieres, the Festival saw some world premieres including Holly Herndon’s first public performance in IP and Two Phone Calls by Tuomo Rämö and the working group.
Huvila’s concert series included a record 25 concerts, including Angélique Kidjo, Tinariwen, J. Karjalainen and Kurt Vile & The Violators. Taylor Mac, Arooj Aftab, Lucy Dacus and Agnes Obel performed in Finland for the first time and received a rapturous welcome. The renovated Huvila was complemented by the Huvilanranta festival park, designed by JKMM Architects, which was the venue for DJ gigs and other events open to the public every day during the Festival. Huvilanranta attracted about 50,000 visitors and will also add to the festival experience next year.
The Night of the Arts also brought together tens of thousands of art enthusiasts, and there was a monument for extinct species, Comrades Against Extinction by Jonas Staal and Radha d’Souza, on Kansalaistori Square. People local to Helsinki could also enjoy 25 Street Corner Concerts and 50 Block Concerts. Almost 300 Art Gifts were also distributed during the Festival; anyone could give a surprising artistic experience to a loved one. The exact number of festival visitors will be confirmed later, but it exceeded its target of more than 200,000 visitors.
The late-summer programme was enriched even further by Helsinki Festival’s partner festivals Poetry Moon, Outsider Art Festival, Perttu Häkkinen Foundation’s subculture day, Viapori Jazz, Helsinki Contemporary Opera Festival, Art goes Kapakka and Sampo Festival.
The festival programme was made possible by numerous partners. Helsinki Festival’s main partners are Helsingin Sanomat and Elisa, sponsored by Accenture, and the service partners were Akun tehdas, hasan & partners, Hartwall, Heku, Marski by Scandic, PunaMusta and Renault. The festival is supported by the City of Helsinki and the Ministry of Education and Culture, and international orchestra and dance performances by Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation.
The next Helsinki Festival will take place in August 2023. Marko Ahtisaari will continue as the festival’s Artistic Director for the next two years, covering the 2023 and 2024 festivals.
About the Helsinki Festival
The Helsinki Festival is the largest multi-arts festival in Finland. It is Finland's biggest cultural event in terms of visitors. The Helsinki Festival is an annual event, in August. The festival offers hundreds of performances and events in the Finnish capital city of Helsinki.
The Helsinki Festival was established in its present form in 1968 by the City of Helsinki to follow up and to broaden the supply of culture in the mainly classical music festival then called "Sibelius viikot" ("Sibelius weeks"). The original "Sibelius viikot" festival was active from 1951 to 1965.
The performances consist of theater, music, dance, art exhibitions, circus, movies, children's programs and various forms of other culture. Numerous renowned international artists have also been performing at the Helsinki Festival. Many of the performances are free. One of the main events is called "Night of the Arts" (Taiteiden yö), when all the city is open for anyone to perform outdoors in the parks and streets of Helsinki.
The main concerts are at the large festival tent called Huvila Festival tent which is built every year in one of the parks in Helsinki. Today, theater has a big role in the festival and many (also international) performances are held at the Korjaamo Culture factory in Töölö in Helsinki.