Tuesday, July 19, 2005
There was a population explosion this past weekend. Ilosaari Rock happens once a year, for the past 30 odd years and has allowed Joensuu to blow off a year's worth of steam. And they blow hard.
On Friday morning, on the way to work I came across 3 shirtless stumbling young drunks who were making their way from the lake into town. It was 9am and a precursor of things to come. The festival goers had been arriving for the past few days and all the signs pointed to a weekend celebration that would be one for the ages. The amount of beer in each store had easily quadrupled and the prices were slashed by 30%. Security guards were hired for all local kiosks downtown and drunk people were sleeping wherever there was shade to be found.
Friday night was Ilovaari Rock, which was for the older folks in town and was a lot more calm. Although when our guests arrived and we went out after the concert, the old folks were doing their best to relive the glory days. All the bars in town were packed, the streets were filled with people drinking - there are no open container laws in Finland and, at least for the weekend, no laws against urinating in public.
Karoliina and I were working for the website, writing articles about the bands, the crowds, whatever. This festival was like a two-day, city-wide Lollapalooza. Here is a sampling of one of the things I wrote. It was about the soccer match between the Finnish rock stars and some local athletes. http://www.ilosaarirock.fi/2005/felamaa/pivot/entry.php?id=152
All in all, it was a fun and exhausting time and I am glad it is over. Karoliina and I are just waiting for the heat to end and for the television to start broadcasting good shows again. Too much Knight Rider can cause serious brain damage.
On Friday morning, on the way to work I came across 3 shirtless stumbling young drunks who were making their way from the lake into town. It was 9am and a precursor of things to come. The festival goers had been arriving for the past few days and all the signs pointed to a weekend celebration that would be one for the ages. The amount of beer in each store had easily quadrupled and the prices were slashed by 30%. Security guards were hired for all local kiosks downtown and drunk people were sleeping wherever there was shade to be found.
Friday night was Ilovaari Rock, which was for the older folks in town and was a lot more calm. Although when our guests arrived and we went out after the concert, the old folks were doing their best to relive the glory days. All the bars in town were packed, the streets were filled with people drinking - there are no open container laws in Finland and, at least for the weekend, no laws against urinating in public.
Karoliina and I were working for the website, writing articles about the bands, the crowds, whatever. This festival was like a two-day, city-wide Lollapalooza. Here is a sampling of one of the things I wrote. It was about the soccer match between the Finnish rock stars and some local athletes. http://www.ilosaarirock.fi/2005/felamaa/pivot/entry.php?id=152
All in all, it was a fun and exhausting time and I am glad it is over. Karoliina and I are just waiting for the heat to end and for the television to start broadcasting good shows again. Too much Knight Rider can cause serious brain damage.
// posted by Howard @ 2:00 PM 
