This past week the city of Jyväskylä enjoyed temperatures in the mid to high 70’s which on one particularly glorious day was actually higher than our home in Goleta, CA! The city seemed to relax into the warmth as the “spontaneous and cultural experience” that is the Yläkanpingin Yö festival (loosely translated as uptown nights) took hold of the uptown and university area. There were street vendors selling food/bohemian art/clothing/jewelry, live music performances, lectures, art, and theatre performances. Christian bands and what I thought was a Polynesian choral group (all in Finnish so a little hard to tell); rap; pop; and some hard-core thrash metal all competed for attention-often at the same time.
Most of the pedestrian main street shopping area was taken over by Christian booths that seemed to be offering everything from literature to support groups to crafts or even opportunities to serve as missionaries. I was surprised to see so many churches there and asked one of the vendors about it. He explained that 95% of Finns belong to the Lutheran Church and that all the booths were part of this one church. Reading up about the event later I saw that there were some “associations and societies showcasing ideology and causes.” This I interpreted as the Lutheran Church vendor(s) and the 400 scouts that were having a campout at the Church park (both the church in the park and the scouts were Lutheran based also….)
Yläkanpingin Yö is meant to encourage people from different cultures living in Finland to meet and mingle. Judging by the varieties of Asian and African food on sale alongside the four-foot diameter grilling dishes offering Finnish favorites such as whole fried fingerling fish with vegetables or meatballs and fries, or even whole grilled salmon, I would say that this was pretty successful even if there are few immigrants in Finland generally. Whatever its intentions, the stomach knows what the stomach wants regardless of labels! The event was started in the early 1990’s as a way to help offset the hard economic struggles Finland, and Jyväskylä in particular, was experiencing. Many businesses were closing and selling off their merchandise at flea markets leading a student named Soili Puranen to pitch the idea of a huge flea market and uplifting arts-based festival to help people make money and have a good time. As it didn’t really cost anything, the city agreed and put Soili in charge. It’s continued to grow each year and now thousands of visitors enjoy the fun. The ice cream vendors seemed especially both exhausted and happy by the end of the weekend as they were running out of stock. For us, it was great to wander through the booths and sprawl out on a blanket in the sun serenaded by the sweet tones of Finnish rap.
