10 festivals that are reason enough to visit Finland over Autumn/Winter 2023

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The festival summer season is over and done, and it was pretty epic as usual! If you're someone who prefers the intensity of a fest over the more regular concerts you'd expect during the Fall/Winter club season, you're in the right country with Finland. They have a nice collection of really cool bigger events that could even make it worth your time and money to fly over here to experience some of the cold/dark period of this Nordic country...

HELSINKI TECHFEST

(22/09-23/09 @ On The Rocks, Helsinki)

Elektrik Products is a booking company that really brings some excitement and uniqueness to the Finnish live music scene with events like Hellsinki Industrial Festival, Hellsinki Metal Horizons and #Horizons23, and they came with yet another great concept under the form of HELSINKI TECHFEST. Taking some of the experimental and modern side that Hellsinki Metal Horizons had, but keeping it good and heavy, they’ve put together a quite impressive line-up of highly technical and complex bands that are doing something refreshing with their music. You’ll get to enjoy some Finnish delights with bands like instrumental proggers Unscaled Seven, melodic metalcore outfit Crucify the Faith, and the unique soundscape of the “Northcore” of Atlas on the Friday night, and “electro-cinema-death” metal band Sirkuit Preiker, electro metallers Khroma and metalcore stars on the rise Balance Breach on the Saturday night. But not keeping it purely Finnish, for both nights they fly in some UK bands with modern metalcore champions Oceans Ate Alaska on the Friday and the rap and grime infused metal outfit Hacktivist on the Saturday. Metalcore, djent, elektro metal, to even rap metal,… there won’t be a moment for you to get bored!

Get your tickets still here.


Kaamos Metal Cruise

(23/09-24/09 @ MS Viking Grace Turku-Stockholm-Turku)

From the people behind Nummirock and other great events, you can catch a cruise ship that goes from Turku to Stockholm and back, while enjoying some great music and catch up with some of your favorite artists. Kaamos Metal Cruise is the brand-new little sister of the already quite established Nordic Metal Cruise, and boasts quite the line-up! Bands on the more extreme side of things with the black/death giants Belphegor and the Danish death metal force Baest rocking the ship, to the always impressive Tiamat, and some nice Finnish talents on top of that with Northcore stars Atlas, the proggers of Pressure Points and the melodeath outfit Suotana. All of that on a ship that has quite a few bars, and excellent food, and you just know this will be quite the party that will be talked about still for a long time!

There should be some tickets available still, so hurry up and get them here!


HKI SKEPU FEST V

(29/09-30/09 @ Tiivistämö, Helsinki)

If you’re rather in the market for some good old punk music, Helsinki is the place to be during the last weekend of September! The 5th edition of HKI SKEPU FEST will take place at the Tiivistämö venue there, a punk festival organized by Finnish punk rock label Fast Decade Records. It features quite a few bands from their roster, bringing together some amazing local talents and some bands from Sweden, Latvia and Hungary. Having witnessed some live shows from a couple of the bands on this year’s line-up, we’re predicting quite the intense, high energy, hot & sweaty gigs over these 2 days!

Get your tickets here!


Lost in Music

(04/10-07/10 @ Tampere)

Lost In Music is a yearly festival that is the biggest showcase of the country and a highlight for everyone who is any bit interested in discovering new things and possibly finding the next big thing. While we are mostly dedicated to the more heavy side of the music industry (which is well represented with Palehorse, Bloodred Hourglass, Moon Shot, Nurkkitappelu, One Morning Left, Shereign, St. Aurora, Turmion Kätilöt, Lähiöbotox, Stoned Statues, Nicole, Khroma, Egokills,…), there is such a wide range of different genres to taste of and discover that you’ll never find a boring moment where you won’t have some kind of show to check out. Be ready to put on some decent hiking boots, though, because Lost In Music takes place in several venues all over Tampere, so if you’re not planning to stick to one location, we hope you’re in good form to do quite some walking… You can buy tickets for specific locations, or you can be adventurous and get a festival ticket that allows you to go to any and all of the locations for the whole duration of the festival for the small sum of 75€!

Get your tickets here.


Steelchaos 2023

(20/10-21/10 @ Villatehdas, Hyvinkää)

Steelfest is one of those by now legendary yearly events of the underground and extreme metal scene, with mostly a focus on black metal. Since a bit over half a decade, the people behind this festival organize a smaller, Fall/Winter edition with Steelchaos. It may be smaller, but it definitely packs quite the intense punch. We’ve seen a bunch of really weird, exclusive and mind-blowingly good shows over all the editions we went to, and this year promises again to be quite exciting. With black metal legends like Norwegian Taake, Finnish Satanic Warmaster and Urn, but also the death/doom from Krypts, black thrashers Evil Angel, Finnish cult black metal outfit Nightside, and death metal/grindcore Cannibal Accident! With at least half of these bands you’re never sure what to expect live, and more bands are to be announced still! Underground, extreme and at times obscene music lovers, get your tickets and get to planning your stay!

Get your tickets here.


Black Box Mikkeli

(27/10-28/10 @Saimaa Stadiumi, Mikkeli)

One of Finland’s most promising metal bands, Bloodred Hourglass, has been behind the organization of Black Box Mikkeli for a couple of years now. Every single time, the line-up boasts a nice collection of established and promising acts from their own country, giving them all a big stage and professional production to do their thing and show what they got. And with the cherry on top, as the last show of the event, Bloodred Hourglass themselves blowing the roof of the stadium where it’s held, and now probably one of the first moments where you’ll be able to hear a good chunk of their new album live! This year’s line-up brings big names Insomnium, Stam1na, Before The Dawn and Huora, up-and-comers Balance Breach, Luna Kills, As I May and I Am Your God, but also a foreign name with the modern black metal force Gaerea! A 2-night event you don’t want to miss out on if you’re anywhere near!

Get your tickets here!


Fall Fest 2023

(02/11-04/11 @ Kuudes Linja, Helsinki)

Every spring, you can enjoy Sonic Rites in Helsinki, which features some of the best of stoner, doom, sludge and related genres, with a lot of bands on the line-up that you often see appear at renown festivals like Roadburn and Desertfest. And now they are bringing us a smaller sister event under the form of Fall Fest 2023. 3 nights at Kuudes Linja, and 8 bands. They start off with the Dutch psychedelic hard rockers of Iron Jinn and the US queens of atmospheric doom Blackwater Holylight on the first night. Followed up strongly with local doomsters Orbiter, the Polish stoner doom of Moonstone and UK sludge/doom institution Slomatics on the second night. And the third night blows even that out of the water with the quirky Finnish duo NAAKKA bringing a twisted blend of 80s/90s industrial and EBM and political lyrics, followed by an impressive display of Italian doom with Shores of Null and Ufomammut! If you’re any bit into the doomy side of heavy music, these nights will be a pure delight for you.

Get your tickets here.


Hellsinki Industrial Festival 2023

(02/11-04/11 @ Ääniwalli, Helsinki)

Finland is a great country to be if you’re looking for metal and rock shows, but it took Elektrik Products to bring some proper industrial and dark electronic music to Finland on the regular. This will be the 5th edition already of the yearly Hellsinki Industrial Festival, and the 3rd that will take place for the most part at Ääniwalli, an industrial looking building that is a perfect fit for some crazy raves. Every year they bring an impressive collection of legendary, unique and exciting acts from the industrial, dark electro, EBM, aggrotech & co realms. Think cybergoth party, but with actual live acts… The Thursday will take place at On The Rocks as the traditional preclub gig with TeknoHirvi, Super dragon punch!! and Ivan King, and spread over 2 stages and 2 nights at Ääniwalli, you’ll find Protectorate, The Interbeing, Miseria Ultima, Nano Infect, V2A, Pretty Addicted, Nachtmahr, Zardonic, Suzi Sabotage, Devil-M, Intent:Outtake, Tyske Ludder, Moaan Exis, FGFC820, Heartlay, Grendel and Rotersand! Let the harsh beats take over and dance ’till there’s no tomorrow!

Get your tickets here.


Melancholy Mass Festival 2023

(24/11-25/11 @ Ääniwalli, Helsinki & Olympia, Tampere)

Last year, the very first Melancholy Mass Festival took place over 2 nights, 1 in Helsinki and 1 in Tampere. It was such a success, that the same formula is being repeated for a 2nd time. What can you expect? A wide range of more extreme genres going from black metal, (melodic) death metal, deathcore, doom metal, and everything in between, but all with a certain degree of melancholy infused into them. This new edition features Greek atmospheric/symphonic death metal masters Septicflesh as the main event, backed with some great Finnish bands under the form of black metal legends …and Oceans, the popular melancholic metal of Vorna, proggy melodeath with Voidfallen, and the ever impressive deathcore superstars on the rise Assemble the Chariots! Don’t sit on this one…

Get your tickets here.


Unholy Winter Fest

(02/12 @ Joensuu Areena, Joensuu)

In Joensuu, one of the biggest cities on the most eastern side of Finland, is the place to be to get the last month of the year started properly with Unholy Winter Fest. It’ll be quite the night of metal festivities with the Swedish pop metal giants Amaranthe dropping by their neighbours to heat things up, Finnish legends Stam1na and Mokoma, and stars on the rise Bloodred Hourglass and Joensuu locals Nerve End! If you don’t have anything else planned, we’d recommend you to make a trip to there for some good times to be had!


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