Every year in December makeshift cabins are placed in the Senate square in Helsinki to form a Christmas market. Everything on sale must be Finnish and handmade. Here are a few images taken on Dec. 8t
One of the world’s biggest startup events, Slush, took place in Helsinki on 21st -22nd of November this year. The event attracted over 25,000 attendees, 3,500 startups and 2000 investors from all over the world from over 130 nationalities.
In 2013 Edward Snowden exposed a system of mass global surveillance. Six years later, he says not much has changed and will not change until the internet is restructured. In a live interview over a video link, Edward Snowdens shared his views with 70 000 Web Summit attendees listening in Lisbon’s Altice Arena last week.
Therapy recycle + exorcise presented their collection on the first day of HFW. Vegan sneakers by Heluna shop. Photo credit: Julia Rahikka
This year Helsinki Fashion Week took place from 19th to 22nd of July, in four locations in Helsinki. The fashion shows took place in the Palace of Nobility, Wanha Satama and Clarion hotel Helsinki. Talk panels were also held in these places and keynotes were held at Elisa Kulma, witch is an official partner of HFW.
You may not have ever been to Lithuania or have heard much about it, but this small baltic country of 2.9 million is going to surprise you in the near future.
Lithuania, is probably the most courageous and progressive of the Baltic states at the moment. With a young workforce and vibrant startup atmosphere the country is railing towards a fast modernisation and economic development.
A tweet form the youth wing of the Finns Party has caused uproar on the internet for scaremongering with racist content. The tweet uses a picture of a black couple holding a newborn baby.
Jorge Arreaza, Minister of the People’s Power for Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in Venezuela. 26 February 2019 Photon: UN
On April 11, the ongoing saga of journalist and transparency activist Julian Assange took a dangerous turn. Ecuador's president, Lenin Moreno, revoked his asylum in that country's London embassy.
Sara Khameis's mother is Finnish, and her father is a Jordanian. Sara has grown up in Amman, the capital of Jordan. She received a bachelor degree in biotechnology in Jordan and then applied for a Master's degree in Finland.
This year Slush came back bigger and better than ever with 20 000 attendees, 2 600 startups, 1 600 investors and 600 journalists. Slush was held dec 4-5 in Messukeskus, the Helsinki Exhibition Center. The trends of this year included artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, machine learning, blockchain and sustainability. There were lots of inspirational speakers including Werner Vogels, Julia Hartz, Katarina Berg and Casey Winters.
Middle Feast -- one of the business teams of the Business Program.
Startup Refugees is one of the leading NGOs in Finland that helps asylum seekers and refugees by assisting them with starting a business or finding employment. I met with Maiju Mitrunen, the Head of Business & Employment Programs, in their office in Helsinki and we talked a little bit about the work they do.
A group of around 20 members of the far-right group, who call themselves “Soldiers of Odin” arranged a show off in the Puhos shopping mall in eastern Helsinki on Monday evening, frightening and intimidating immigrants. Puhos is a small shopping mall adjacent to Itis. The outdated mall has been rented out to mainly ethnic shops and restaurants. Visitors of the mall are almost all from Somali, Kurdish, Arab and other immigrant groups.
Mohammed received two negative decisions to his request for asylum and exhausted from the process, he returned voluntarily to Iraq. He now lives in Baghdad. In a phone call, Mohammed talks about why he left Iraq, the case and how he’s getting on back at home.
THE FORECAST for the weekend of the 21st Tuska Open Air Metal Festival was not looking too good the week before. Torrential rains were promised for Friday and Saturday with temperatures around 10 degrees Celsius - Finnish summer at its best. Metalheads from all around the world were praying to the weather gods and stocking up on raincoats, rubber boots and gloves in preparation for yet another wet festival.
But the gods seemed to listen: While Friday started off cloudy and temperatures did not reach proper summer heights, it stayed dry for the whole weekend with some blue skies and sun on Saturday and Sunday – summer festival atmosphere was a go!
During these three days, overall 34 000 metal heads found their way to Suvilahti with Saturday being the most popular day with 13 000 visitors. As every year, the area improved ever so slightly from the varied food selection to carts not only delivering beer but also wine and bubbly directly to you, to more seating areas and better-located beer areas. The whole festival was decorated with the various art installation and Belzebubs comics so there was always something new to discover during the weekend. Not only the area, also the festival goers were once again dressed up and decorated to the max and if one didn’t have time for that at home, a corpse paint and flower crown (or flower beard adornment) station made sure everyone could get their festival style going.
On Friday, the crowd was already going strong (just like the wind that day) for Tribulation from Sweden who played on the Helsinki Stage as the second band on there, before Turmion Kätilöt on the main stage made sure to deliver some more up-beat tunes that got the audience dancing. The evening continued with powerful shows by Mantar and Moonsorrow as well as Arch Enemy and Meshuggah who pumped the festival goes up for the grand finale: Body Count ft. Ice-T took the night away with a performance that blew the festival crowd away and will stay in many minds for a long time to come.
The dancing continued on Saturday with The 69 Eyes and Carpenter Brut, and it was noticeable that the festival was much more crowded that day. Black metal heavy weights Emperor who played on the main stage next certainly had something to do with that as well. Seeing them on a sunny day with blue skies was quite a different experience to the last time they played at Tuska when it was cold, grey and rainy aka much more black metal but the band was in a great mood and the audience of course as well – and who said you cannot enjoy some black metal with a huge smile on your sunlit face?! The mood got more gloomy and melancholic with Hallatar and tears could be seen in a many corner of an eye, before German Thrash machine Kreator made sure to up the ante again. At The Gates and Gojira caped off the official part of the day, but the party and the dancing continued until the early morning hours at the after parties.
Sunday presented itself as the warmest and sunniest day so far which helped the possibly slightly tired festival goers wake up for the last festival day. Tuska regulars Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus took many in the audience on a trip down memory lane with their classics before Emperor front man Ihsahn took the Helsinki Stage with his solo project, the tent above the stage providing some welcome wind protection. From Ihsahn’s atmospheric and groove filled show it was onward to some Sunday dancing at Kattilahalli with Grave Pleasures at Inferno Stage while Europe played on the main stage and heralded the (almost) final (festival) countdown. The evening ended with Clutch and Parkway Drive, who put on an intense, pyro heavy show including a rotating drum kit to end this year’s Tuska Festival in style.
