At the beginning of the 20 th century Finnish people wanted to become independent.
Music was a way to show other nations our uniqueness .
T he Finnish soprano Aino
Ackté, who was very famous at European opera houses, visited Savonlinna.
When she saw Olavinlinna Castle she understood the potential of the medieval castle built in 1475 as the venue for an opera festival.
The first opera festival was held in 1912. Aino Ackté did as she had promised and turned the castle into a stronghold of Finnish opera. During the five summers she was able to arrange her festival, she staged four Finnish operas. However, the First World War, the Russian Revolution, Finland’s Civil
War and economic difficulties that followed made it impossible to arrange the festival and so the festival tradition lay dormant for almost four decades.
In 1967 the festival came to life again. The Savonlinna Music Days decided to arrange an opera course for young singers. The leader of the course hit on the idea of stag ing Beethoven’s Fidelio in the castle courtyard. The performance was a roaring success, and the premiere of Fidelio on July 16,
1967 is nowadays regarded as the start of the present Festival.
Over the years the Savonlinna Opera Festival has grown from a one-week event into an international festival lasting a month. Each year it performs to a total audience of around 60,000, a good 10 per cent from abroad. Music lovers all over the world know Savonlinna.
Ten Finnish operas have been premiered at the Savonlinna Opera Festival since 1967. Each year the Festival has, in addition, staged its own productions of well-known classical operas, such as Mozart's The Magic
Flute, Verdi's Don Carlo and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.
Several foreign opera companies (for instance, Mariinsky Theatre from St.
Petersburg 1988, by Covent Garden from London in 1998, Los Angeles Opera in 2001) have visited Savonlinna since 1987. Hungarian State Opera will visit
Savonlinna in 2011 with their production of Verdi's Don Carlo.
The Festival has also taken some of its own productions abroad, for example the Flying Dutchman visited Spain in 1997, Macbeth at Dalhalla in 2001 and in
Chile in 2003. The Savonlinna Opera Festival took The Horseman to the
Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
The Savonlinna Opera Festival has become one of the most important events in the Finnish cultural calendar, and an event of the greatest international significance. Aino Ackté was right: first-class opera in a romantic, medieval

castle amid lake scenery of ‘supernatural beauty’ is a unique and an unforgettable experience .
Olavinlinna at midnight in July. http://www.google.fi/imgres?imgurl=http://yle.fi/ecepic/archive/00109/8_5_olavinlinna_kuv_10984
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Olavinlinna seats 2257 people.

Ruisrock is a rock festival held annually on the island of Ruissalo in Turku. Ruisrock, founded in 1970, is the second oldest rock festival in Europe and the oldest in Finland. The festival has attracted world-famous artists throughout its lifetime except in the turn of the 2000's due to the organizer's economic issues. There are plans to expand the festival area, from the five stages currently present.
In 2005, when the German industrial metal band Rammstein performed at the festival, 71,000 visitors attended the festival. In recent years, the number of visitors has fluctuated around 70,000. However, the all-time record was set in 1971, when there were about 100,000 visitors, with artists such as Canned Heat playing.
The 2009 edition of the festival saw a rise in attendance, when during 3 days there was a total of 92,000 visitors. In 2009, musical acts such as
Slipknot, Disturbed, Volbeat and popular domestic artists including
Children of Bodom and Him played at the festival.
In 2010, the festival celebrated its 40-year anniversary, with popular artists such as Slash and Ozzy Osbourne playing. http://www
.google.fi/i mgres?img
url=http:// www.festar
it.org/kuva t/5/2009/0
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Pori jazz
Pori jazz is a large international jazz festival, held annually in the coastal city of Pori. It is one of the oldest and best
known jazz festivals in Europe, having been arranged every year since 1966. The first Pori Jazz festival lasted one weekend and drew about 1500 people; nowadays more than 250,000 people attend the festival that lasts nine days.
Numerous world-famous musicians (including, for example, Alicia Keys,
Paul Anka, Kanye West) have performed at the festival through the years, as well as lesser-known groups from Finland and elsewhere. Musical genres covered at Pori Jazz include varieties of jazz, blues, soul, funk, hip hop, Afro-Cuban, world music and occasionally even some forms of pop music.
The main arena of the festival is located in a small nature park named
Kirjurinluoto near the centre of Pori.
The English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist Elton John will perform at Pori jazz festival on 16 th of July in 2011. http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiedosto:Sonisphere_Main_Stage.jpg
There are all kinds of festivals, big and small, in Finland at summertime. One can claim that every town and village has its own summer festival. Some of the craziest and funniest summer events are maybe Wife carrying world championships, Mobilephone throwing world championships, Finnish Mosquito killing contest and Mobilephone throwing world championships and Swamp football.

Wife carrying world championships.
http://www.google.fi/imgres?imgurl=http://listsoplenty.com/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2010/03/wife-carrying-contest.jpg
Mobilephone throwing world championships. http://www.google.fi/imgres?imgurl=http://www.pics-site.com/wp-content/uploads/Mobile-phonethrowing-championships-Belarus-10.jpg
Swamp football.

http://www.google.fi/imgres?imgurl=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/SPORT/football/07/03/swa mp.soccer.world.champs/art.swampsoccer1.jpg
Sources http://www.porijazz.fi/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pori_Jazz http://www.operafestival.fi/In_English/Front_page.iw3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruisrock