Kaustinen Folk Music Festival
Kaustinen Folk Music Festival (Finnish: Kaustisen kansanmusiikkijuhlat), celebrated yearly in July in Kaustinen, Finland, is the biggest folk music and dance festival in the Nordic countries. It was first celebrated in 1968.
In its first year, the festival expected 6,000 visitors. The number was over three times the estimate, though. Nowadays the festival lasts a whole week and is visited by over 100,000 people. There are over 3,000 performers from Finland and other countries every year.
The festival has a different country theme every year (2003 Greece, 2004 multicultural Canada, 2005 Hungary, 2006 Italy, 2007 Russia). Every year the festival nominates the Master Folk Musician, the Ensemble of the Year, and Festival Ensembles amongst prominent Finnish folk musicians.
In 2006 Hyperborea were nominated as band of the year at the festival.
The Peanuts comic strip bird Woodstock, named for the rock music festival in Woodstock, New York, is called Kaustinen in Finnish with obvious reference to this folk music festival.
External links
Media related to Kaustinen Folk Music Festival at Wikimedia Commons