Tampere Times 1/2021

Get inspired by Tampere! Share your favorites on social media with #visittampere

Enjoy the views!

Tampere offers many great places to enjoy the stunning city views. Head out to Pyynikki ridge to enjoy the peace of the nature reserve, climb up to the observation tower and marvel at the views opening to Lake Pyhäjärvi and Lake Näsijärvi. While you’re there, don’t forget to try the best doughnuts in the world! You can also admire Tampere panorama from the roof of a historic building: Roof Walk Finlayson Area allows you to see the sights from a new perspective. Also, check out Näsinneula observation tower, Moro Sky Bar at Solo Sokos Torni Hotel and the restaurant Periscope for your best Instagram shots!

Museum tips

Tampere is quite possibly the most interesting city of diverse museums in Finland. Would you like to be a spy for a day? Head to Spy Museum Interested in the old days? Try Finnish Labour Museum Werstas or Lenin Museum. Art lover? Pop into Sara Hildén Art Museum or Tampere Art Museum. See what else is happening in the city on visittampere.com

Savor the food

Are you Hungry for Tampere? Savor the tastes and atmosphere of this unique city and find your favorite dishes from its vast range of restaurants. Local, organic, vegan, burgers, wings, oriental… Tampere has it all. Not to mention the breweries! hungryfortampere.com

Explore with the family

Museum Centre Varpriikki has something for everyone, and the only Moomin Museum in the world invites you and your family for a magical journey into the fairy-tale world. Another great place for the whole family is Tallipiha Stable Yards. If you’re lucky, you might experience a horse carriage ride there! Visit also FlowPark adventure park in Pyynikki and the many escape rooms of the city or head out to the lakes for canoeing or paddling! For rental equipment see visittampere.com.

World!

Tampere is famous for its sauna culture and the city region has over 50 public saunas to choose from. Here are some of our favorites.

Rajaportti

The oldest public sauna in Finland. Here you will experience the traditional sauna athmosphere. Let the locals show you how it’s done!

Kuuma sauna & restaurant

Kuuma is one of the newest additions to Tampere sauna scene. Enjoy the heat, dip into the Ratina bay and have some food or drinks on the terrace.

Kaupinoja and Rauhaniemi

These lakeside saunas are loved by both locals and visitors. Swimming and sauna all year round!

Photos: Laura Vanzo

Tampere – the Sauna Capital of the

HOPEALINJAT CRUISES

DAY CRUISES | EVENING CRUISES | EVENTS | RESTAURANTS

www.hopealinjat.fi

Hopealinjat is your travel guide to Finland`s beautiful lake sceneries and the best local flavours.

Our cruises and services provide many ways to enjoy fresh air and to see the world-famous Finnish lake sceneries, city views, beautiful countryside and green forests. Hop onboard on our memorable cruises.

We offer cruises in Tampere, Hämeenlinna, Virrat, Ruovesi, Nokia, Lempäälä and many other destinations along the way.

For more infor mation

www.hopealinjat.fi

Contact: 010 422 5600

asiakaspalvelu@hopealinjat.fi

VIIKINSAARI ISLAND

RESTAURANT | NATURE PARK | CRUISE

The Viikinsaari island in Tampere is a wonderful place to spend a summer day with your family, friends or a loved one. The boat trip from Laukontori harbour to Viikinsaari island takes only 20 minutes and offers a lovely break from the hassle of the city. Viikinsaari offers something for everyone: summer theatre, nature park, sauna and outdoor games for hire.

Island’s over 120 years old restaurant Viikinsaari, the oldest summer restaurant in Tampere, is located in a beautiful old wooden villa. Restaurant Viikinsaari offers lake and archipelago inspired, straightforward Finnish food with a modern twist valuing local producers and the island's very own herb garden.

Take a look at the schedule and book your tickets online www.viikinsaari.fi www.ravintolaviikinsaari.fi

STEAMSHIP TARJANNE

CRUISES | RESTAURANT | HISTORICAL | TAMPERE

S/s Tarjanne built in 1908 is the only passenger steamship in the world that still operates regularly on a long distance route. Tarjanne sails from Tampere Mustalahti harbour to Virrat via Ruovesi.

Onboard Tarjanne passengers will experience the authentic steam whistle blow and enjoy delicious modern Finnish food made with fresh, local ingredients at the restaurant designed by a famous Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

For more information and tickets www.tarjannelaiva.fi

Photo: Laura Vanzo / Visit Tampere Roof walk at Finlayson area. Photo: Laura Vanzo / Visit Tampere Tampere by night.

Photo: Laura Vanzo / Visit Tampere Emmi Itäranta. Photo: Liisa Takala

Tampere today and mission for new tomorrow

beautiful nature and means to enjoy it, we are working ambitiously towards our climate goal to be a carbon-neutral city by 2030.

Tampere’s history began in 1779 when the King of Sweden, Gustav III, established the city on the bank of Tammerkoski rapids. The location was then and still is our competitive edge. Tampere’s city center is surrounded by lake and ridge scenery, sited on an isthmus between lakes Pyhäjärvi and Näsijärvi.

The Tammerkoski rapids run through the city. The rapids and the hydroelectric power generated by them have been harnessed already at the very beginning. It has been and still is an excellent source of energy for the people of Tampere.

Throughout the years, we have been known as the industrial pioneer in Finland. The right mind-set, know-how, bravery, and hydropower have been the key drivers behind our success.

In this city, Finland’s first paper mill started operation in 1783. The first electric light in the Nordic countries was lit in Finlayson’s modern production facilities in 1882. By the beginning of the 20th century, Tampere was the largest industrial city in Finland.

Tampere is still at the very heart of fast-paced development. The urban atmosphere, culture, industrial heritage, and know-how are the Tampere region’s characteristic strengths.

We are proud to have over 50,000 students of all ages, of whom 30,000 are studying at the University of Tampere and the rest 20,000 at the vocational education and training. We indeed are the home for the professionals of the future.

Our new university provides a unique hub for interdisciplinary research on the economy, technology, health, and society and cooperation between companies, the University of Applied Sciences, and the university.

The city is located at the crossroads of Finland’s logistics routes, the most important highways, and railways, which supports several major mobility projects and logistics projects underway in the city region, such as constructing the tramway developing the main rail line. The new mean of public transportation, the Tampere tram, will start operating in August 2021!

The beginning of the Tram era is a big step towards the accomplishment of our ambitious climate actions. To ensure the

We are developing our city skyline and constructing new to ensure your visit is worthwhile even in the future. We are getting new shapes to our skyline, creating more services, possibilities to live and work in Tampere, and looking into ways to include ecological and sustainable new approaches and technologies as a part of our operations.

We want to become the international forerunner and advocate of fighting climate change, all forms of citizen equality, and set an example for Europe. Thus, Tampere and the whole Tampere Region are resilient.

We have decided to apply to become the next European center of culture because we want to increase our residents’ well-being and boost the region’s vitality in the long term. The European Capitals of Culture initiative is a way for the European Union to support European cultural diversity.

Why do Tampere and the Tampere Region want to become a European Capital of Culture? Because we cherish our values and want to improve the quality of lives of friends, our visitors, and ourselves. Our mission is to remind ourselves and each other to take care of other people as equals, like taking care of ourselves and promoting human presence and interaction in global digitalization. Our objective is to fight against climate change and fight for sustainability and future generations.

We welcome you to experience Tampere today and join our mission for new tomorrow.

Lauri Lyly mAyor of tAmpErE

Since the beginning, Tampere has seen the many phases of history. We have grown from a small cotton factory town into a modern and culturally rich university city.

E X P E R I E N C E

F R O M T H E

S e e t h e c i t y

H e a r s t o r i e s

F e e l T a m p e r e

- b y w a l k i n g o n t h e r o o f s !

B o o k y o u r s !

A M A Z I N G C I T Y . F I

E n j o y t a s t e s a n d

t h e v i e w o v e r t h e c i t y .

C r e a t e m e m o r i e s

w i t h y o u r p e o p l e .

C A F É - B A R - L U N C H

S e r v e d o n t h e t a b l e

Roof Walk Finlayson Area Bar&Café Katto Satakunnankatu 18A, 5 krs.

@AMAZINGCITYOY

@ CAFEKATTO

Finland, paradise of crazy summer events

Finland’s short summer gets people so amped up that every year we see dozens of world championships, each more outlandish than the last. Usually, they’re in some small town hardly anyone has ever heard of. And every summer there are new competitions as old ones fade away.

The clear favorite in this panoply of sporting mayhem is the throwing of various objects as far as one possibly can. Previous years’ lob-fests have included mouse pads, keyboards, mobile phones, and toilet paper tubes. The mosquito killing race was also legendary, but it had to be put down after some animal rights activists came out against it. That was all well and good, but everyone who has ever been to Finland, especially Northern Finland, knows that we aren’t in any danger of driving them to extinction.

Fortunately, there are plenty of great competitions left in the country. This summer, the COVID-19 situation may affect things, so if you plan to attend an event, make sure to check well in advance if schedules have changed.

In any case: Welcome to Finland’s Nonsensical Summer!

Wife Carrying

One of the most famous Finnish summer hobbies is wife carrying. The Wife Carrying World Championships are held every year in Sonkajärvi in Northern Savonia. The track is 253.5 meters, and along the way there is one water obstacle about a meter deep, as well as

Written by roope Lipasti transLated by oWen F. Witesman

two dry obstacles. The wife being carried can be one’s own or on loan, but she must be more than seventeen years old and weigh at least forty-nine kilograms. If the wife is lighter than this, she may be outfitted with a backpack to bring her over the weight limit. To enter, just arrive an hour before the competition starts.

www.eukonkanto.fi

Teat liner milk can throw

Yes, you read that right. Sonkajärvi also excels in this event, which is organized in connection with the wife carry. A teat inflation liner is the part of a milking machine that is attached to the cow’s udder. So the competition is to see which thrower gets the most teat liners into a milk can. For some reason, the competition rules stipulate than no one over the age of one hundred is allowed to participate.

www. eukonkanto.fi/tonkkumin-mm-kisat

Scythe Harvesting World Championships

Every summer in Liminganlahti, near Oulu, athletes line up to compete at mowing grass with a scythe. This traditional event requires speed, technique, and quality of the end result. For example, one’s technique cannot be too hunched over. The men’s division mows one hundred square meters, while the women’s division is limited to one half that area.

www. liminka.fi

Reigning Heavy Metal Knitting world champions 2019: Giga Body Metal from Japan.

Boot throwing

Finland is known for Nokia, but before Nokia made mobile phones, they made rubber boots, which were both high quality and highly aerodynamic. The World Boot Throwing Championship began in Finland, but nowadays it’s an international pastime with its own sports federation. Because this is such an important competition, the rules are strict: men throw a size forty-three boot, and women throw thirty-eight. The event is freestyle, but the shaft of the boot must remain straight during flight. The longest throw recorded so far was sixty-eight meters.

www. bootthrowing.net

Swamp football

Relatively speaking, Finland is the swampiest country in the world, and Finland is also always crap at football, so no wonder we invented a version of the sport where we can almost hold our own. This is swamp football, where you play. . . in a swamp – in Hyrynsalmi in the Kainuu region, to be exact.

Up to 300 teams compete for the World Cup title – although unfortunately foreign groups enter now as well, so Finland winning isn’t a foregone conclusion anymore. Sadly. In good years, as many as 30,000 fans have descended on Hyrynsalmi, a town of 2,200, which is significantly more than bother to turn out for the Finnish national team.

www. suopotkupallo.fi

Air Guitar Playing

Playing the air guitar is perhaps the highest manifestation of musical virtuosity, so it’s no wonder that competitions in this noble art have been going on for a quarter of a century now. The Air Guitar World Championships are held in Oulu in August, drawing people from as many as twenty different countries.

The idea is to play along with music on an imaginary guitar. Whoever has the best act wins. For once a competition where participation doesn’t depend on having the money to buy a proper instrument!

www. airguitarworldchampionships.com

Heavy Metal Knitting

Another event similar to air guitar is heavy metal knitting. This is sort of the mirror image of air guitar, where the idea is to knit with real knitting needles but to the beat of heavy metal music – for example, knitting behind your head the way Yngwie Malmsten plays guitar. Attitude decides the winner. The competition is held in Joensuu, in North Karelia. Last time, a Japanese knitting team won.

www.heavymetalknitting.com

Berry picking

In Finland, Everyman’s Rights guarantee that anyone can go to any forest to collect berries and mushrooms – just for yourself or to sell. Thirty-seven varieties of edible berries grow wild. The three most picked are bilberries, lingonberries, and cloudberries (in the North). Berry picking is hard work and requires technique as well as a tolerance for mosquitoes. So, no wonder it can be turned into a competition! Every autumn, the town of Suomussalmi in the Kainuu region hosts the World Berry Picking Championships. The main event consists of one hour of lingonberry picking, with divisions for individuals and teams. The record haul is seventy liters in an hour!

www.arktisetaromit.fi

Summer ice fishing

Finland is a nation of ice fishermen, with thousands of people going out on lake or sea ice in the winter and drilling little holes to fish through. Some do this for hours every day, even at the risk of their own lives. Maybe that’s better than things at home? Or perhaps ice fishing is just beyond fun. However, the problem with this activity is that the ice is all gone by June at the latest, which makes ice fishing extremely difficult. But not to worry! Every year Pudasjärvi, in Northern Ostrobothnia, hosts a summer ice fishing event in which competitors take a sheet of Styrofoam, carve a hole in it, and fish through that. For ice anglers, none of this seems strange.

www.pudu.fi/pilikkiviikko

Hay Pole Throwing World Championships

In the old days, hay was placed on long poles to dry, but that hasn’t been done for decades, so the country is full of unused hay poles. Fortunately, some inventive Finns have found a way to reuse them as javelins. Each year, Kannankoski in Central Finland puts on the Hay Pole Throwing World Championships. The javelin, usually a juniper hay pole, is quite heavy, up to 3.5 kilograms. Even so, in 2019, the farthest throw was thirty meters.

www.mmkisat.com

Air Tango Finnish Championships

Since 2006, the Seinäjoki Tango Festival has also included the Finnish Air Tango Championships. As the name suggests, this competition involves dancing the tango with an imaginary partner. So, this is especially suited to anyone who is single or shy. And for once you don’t have to worry about treading on anyone’s toes...

www.tangomarkkinat.fi/kilpailut

Sauna Whisk Throw

A sauna whisk is a bundle of (usually) birch twigs with the leaves on, which Finns use to beat themselves in the sauna. This helps to increase circulation, spreads leaves everywhere, and creates a pleasant scent. So why not also use a sauna whisk as sports equipment? The Sauna Whisk Throwing World Championships in Urjala in the Pirkanmaa region are a Midsummer event that has been held since 1997. Last year the longest throw sailed 13.5 meters. Whisks can be purchased at the event for five euro a piece, so you don’t have to bring your own.

www.facebook.com/vihdanheitonmm

Soapbox racing Finnish championships

Soapbox race cars have no engines, so they can only be driven downhill. In this event, organized for the first time in 2019 on Pyynikki Hill in Tampere, racers compete both for speed and personal style.

www.pyynikinmakiautosm.fi/

Beer floating

This isn’t actually a competition. Really, it’s the opposite. And while it may be one of the most unique summer events in Finland, it has been going on for twenty years now. Beer Floating is a day-long, unofficial event held in the Helsinki region, where a random number of participants float on all sorts of rafts and inflatable rings, swilling beer as they float on the Keravanjoki or Vantaanjoki rivers. The lack of an official organizer has not hampered the event’s popularity, because in recent years there have been thousands of floaters, including many tourists. The Beer Float is on the last weekend in July or the first weekend in August, depending on the vibe.

www.kaljakellunta.org s

Tampere in a nutshell

Written by roope Lipasti transLated by oWen F. Witesman

8000 BC

The connection to ocean from the Tampere region was cut when the ice age was finally over. As the ice melted, the land rose up and the lakes were born – also Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, and little later the Tampere Rapids. A must see attraction from the ice age is Pyynikki, a 90 hectare ridge area, which is almost in the centre of the city. From there are marvellous views to lake Pyhäjärvi. It is also a beautiful place for other outdoor activities.

600

Tampere was an ideal place to build a village, because there were good waterways to both north and south. The first signs of permanent living in the area are from the 7th century.

1200

By the 13th century Tampere region had grown, and it was an important market place. It was inhabited by the Pirkka tribe and even today the Tampere province is called Pirkanmaa, “The land of the Pirkka”.

1638

Tampere was not yet an actual city, but in 1638 Finland’s governor Per Brahe ordered two yearly fairs to be held at the the Tampere Rapids. That’s why Turku – the then capital of Finland – and Tampere have got a special connections of fates, for when the whole city of Turku burned in 1827, the damage was so severe partly because all the men from Turku happened to be at the Tampere fair.

1779

The King Gustav III of Sweden finally granted Tampere the full township status. And no wonder, because Tampere was huge: 3.2 square kilometres with population of no less than 200!

1824

The beautiful old church of Tampere was built. The architect was Charles Bassi

1820

A Scotsman called James Finlayson set up a cotton factory near the Tampere Rapids. It was the first but not last major factory in the remarkable industrial history of Tampere. Finlayson still is a brand every Finn knows. Also from that time on the use of waterpower from Tampere Rapids became important.

1840

From the 1840’s Tampere became the most industrialised city in Finland. Soon there were factories that made iron, paper, machinery, clothes, shoes and many other things. Even to this day Tampere is sometimes called “Manse” which comes from the saying that Tampere is the Manchester of Finland.

1901

Tampere is also a theatre city. The first one, Tampereen Työväen Teatteri – The Tampere Workers Theatre – was established 1901. In 2020 there are over 10 professional theatres in the area.

1918

In 1918 Finland was torn by a civil war with two sides: the “reds” and the “whites”. Tampere as a working class city sided with the reds (who lost). Tampere saw severe battles, thousands died in war efforts and even more in prison camps.

1939–1945

Finland was in war against Russia, and Tampere was an important centre of war industry. For example Tampella made mortars and cannons. Tampere was also bombed, but there was little damage.

1971

Näsinneula, the high tower that Tampere is famous for, was built. Few years later The Särkänniemi Amusement Park opened its doors.

1990

During the 90’s the heavy industry of Tampere was in trouble. One reason was the collapse of Soviet Union, but all and all the world was changing. The chimneys were no longer active, and the factories shut down. Nowadays they are renovated for apartments, museums and such. Industry in today’s Tampere in mostly high tech.

2020

Tampere is the third biggest city in Finland, with over 235,000 inhabitants in the city region. It has four universities and a very vivid cultural life. Tampere is also a city of vision and courage: the brand new tramway is a good example of that! s

Written by matti mäkeLä transLated by oWen F. Witesman

Sports in the time of coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world to its core, and sports have experienced their own share of disruptions. Competitions have been postponed or canceled, and pursuing athletic activities has become more difficult. But one hundred years ago, we were in the same situation.

For Finland it was the best of times and it was the worst of times: in 1918 Finland had just gained its independence but immediately after drifted into a bloody civil war. At the end of the war, the Spanish flu that had been ravaging the world hit Finland in four waves, the last coming in the winter of 1920. And then, as now, we attempted to

rein in the virus by reducing social contacts. And then, as now, the restrictions provoked opposition. In Helsinki, for example, the city magistrate rejected a proposal to close cinemas because it was considered to be a disruption of people’s source of livelihood.

But the restrictions of a century ago differed from today, especially in how they applied to sports. Whereas recreational

Johnny Aitken (left) at the Sheepshead Bay Speedway on May 13, 1916. Aitken died in 1918 of bronchopneumonia from the Spanish flu influenza pandemic.

opportunities are limited now, and, for example, the Finnish Elite Ice Hockey League didn’t even finish their spring 2020 season, competition continued throughout the Spanish flu, and there were virtually no restrictions on sporting events. Other public gatherings, on the other hand, were canceled and people were encouraged to avoid congregating. For example, bandy, essentially field hockey played on ice and the most popular winter team sport of the time, was played normally: “A total of twenty-four series competitions have been held in Helsinki, demonstrating that the beautiful game of bandy has garnered strong support in our country and that in the future years of peace – let us believe that such years will finally come for humanity – it will become the national game of the North,” wrote the Helsingin Sanomat in March, 1919. This journalist was more concerned about the price of playing equipment than the pandemic.

In the spring of 1919, football leagues began their season, even though the third wave of Spanish flu was still raging in the country. After the third wave subsided, the Spanish flu was mistakenly believed to have been defeated, and in September the first international football match in the history of independent Finland was played. A crowd of nearly five thousand witnessed Finland play to a 3–3 draw against Sweden on a field in the Töölö neighborhood of Helsinki without any distancing. People traveled to the venue in packed trams, still mostly without distancing or masks.

Learning from the experiences of other countries could have helped. In the United States, the second wave of Spanish flu began with the baseball playoffs between Boston and Chicago. “All of those events and the regular interactions that people had on streetcars and in saloons and so on helped spread the virus. And Boston became really the epicenter of the outbreak in September of 1918,” wrote sports historian Johnny Smith.

After this, significantly stronger restrictions were applied to sports in the United States than in Finland. For example, baseball players and coaches wore masks even during games and many college sports leagues were canceled altogether, as was a much-anticipated bout between Jack Dempsey, later heavyweight world champion, and Battling Levinsky. The Stanley Cup finals were canceled after all the players on both teams were hospitalized.

Why was the approach to sports and sporting events in Finland so different then than it is today? Especially when estimates place the

number of Finns killed by the Spanish flu at as many as 27,000, which is fifty times more than COVID-19 has killed per capita. Researchers investigating this topic have been unable to provide an unequivocal answer, but in addition to a general lack of understanding at the time, differences in the role of sports in health promotion and civic education come up frequently. A similar debate has now taken place, in particular about whether restrictions on team sports for children and young people have done more harm than good.

“We have evidence that, along with school restrictions, the situation is leading to stress and anxiety in children and young people, and as it continues, the risks are increasing. We base our decision on science and expert opinion,” said the mayor of Helsinki, Jan Vapaavuori , in explaining the city’s decision to open up limited activities for children and young people, contrary to the government’s instructions.

However, during the time of the Spanish flu, there would have been more justification for limiting sports than now because of the large death toll it exacted among young adults. One of the dead was the multiple-time Finnish sprinting champion, Valentin Bergman. “We can explain your departure in no way other than by saying, like the ancient Greeks: Whom the gods love dies young,” said Urheilulehti in the grandiloquent tone typical of the time when writing Bergman’s obituary.

Globally, the disease also laid low successful athletes at the top of their careers. Among those killed were racecar driver Johnny Aitken, the baseball players Larry Chappell and Pearl Douglas, and the hockey players Hamby Shore and Joe Hall, the latter of whom is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

What will happen after the coronavirus? There has been a lot of talk about a new normal and the fact that there is no going back to the old world. For a long time, there will certainly be a need for caution, because as the French existentialist and generally cheery Albert Camus observes at the conclusion to his novel The Plague: “The plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good.” Despite this, it is good to remember the experience of Spanish flu once more: when the last wave of the disease was over, the Roaring Twenties began, ushing in a period of exuberant expansion that only ended with the coming of the Great Recession. So, when the coronavirus disappears, the party will start. s

WHEN THE LAST WAVE OF THE DISEASE WAS OVER, THE ROARING TWENTIES BEGAN, USHING IN A PERIOD OF EXUBERANT EXPANSION THAT ONLY ENDED WITH THE COMING OF THE GREAT RECESSION.

VB&JS, The Vyborg Bandy and Football Club, won the Finnish Bandy Championship during the pandemic in 1919. The team won the title 14 times in 1914–1933.

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Party like a Finn

You can get a good picture of a country and culture by getting to know its celebrations and how people eat, drink, and behave at them. Here’s a taste of Finland!

May Day

May Day is the number one party day in the spring in Finland. Originally it was a working-class celebration, but nowadays it’s more for students. Even so, on May Day in Finland, basically the entire country gets drunk on alcohol and sunshine. The parks fill with picnickers, university students don their caps and head to carnivals, and May Day Market vendors rob families with small children. The traditional May Day foods are funnel cakes and mead. Funnel cakes are sweet, fried pastries that look like human brains, and mead is a fermented, carbonated honey wine, which may or may not contain alcohol. Other May Day delicacies include hotdogs and potato salad, as well as cotton candy for the kiddies.

Mother’s Day

By the second weekend in May, spring is far enough along that you can find flowers growing, which is why Finnish mothers have traditionally been given wood anemones. Custom also holds that the rest of the family should make breakfast for the mother as compensation for her making breakfast for them on the other 364 days of the year. Often people really go all out and bundle the whole family off to the nearest service station for Mother’s Day lunch.

Graduation

In honor of the end of school, students attend church and sing “Suvivirsi", literally “Summer hymn”, without which summer might not come at all. The biggest celebrations revolve around the students who have passed their matriculation exams and finally get to don their white graduation caps.

People aren’t usually specifically invited to graduation parties –you just show up – but bringing a gift, usually money, is customary. Food offerings include sparkling wine, sandwich cakes, and all kinds of sweet and savory snacks.

Midsummer

Midsummer is a celebration of light on the longest day of the year, and in many parts of Finland, the sun doesn’t set at all. Pessimists are often heard observing that this means summer is basically over, and the days are only going to get shorter from now on.

Most people spend Midsummer at their cabins, so there’s plenty of elbow room in the cities. If you want to enjoy bustling urban life, this isn’t the time for it.

Midsummer traditions include drinking a lot of alcohol, sometimes all night long. We also light bonfires, even though every year there’s a forest fire warning around this time, and we shouldn’t light fires at all, but we do anyway. People sing and dance around the bonfires, and someone usually falls in.

Midsummer night is also full of magic: for example, if you put nine different flowers under your pillow, you’re supposed to have a dream about your future spouse. The magic also includes myriad explanations for why young women should take this opportunity to run naked through various forests and glades. It doesn’t take a clairvoyant to guess which gender invented this part of the tradition.

Midsummer involves cabin life, sauna, and alcohol, but also sausage, which we roast over open fires. Of course, you can eat more elegantly if you like, but that’s just showing off.

August

In August, the nights begin to get darker and crayfish season begins. This has led to the custom of holding crayfish parties, where, unsurprisingly, people eat piles of crayfish, downing schnapps after each one and singing drinking songs. This is why crayfish dinners don’t usually last very long. s

Written by roope Lipasti transLated by oWen F. Witesman

Midsummer night bonfire at Joensuu in 2019.

Spies and their equipment that changed the world

The world’s first spy museum in the city center introduces you to the fascinating ways and means of real life James Bonds. Eavesdropping, hidden cameras, secret weapons, code breaking, e-mail hacking...

Remember to say the code “We met at the hotel” to get free Agent Test!

Museum is open Mon-Sun 12-18

Banksy. A Visual Protest -näyttelyn ajan emme peri pääsymaksua. Koronarajoitusten vuoksi käytössä on varauskalenteri, josta voi varata vierailuajan Banksy-näyttelyyn. Jos rajoituksia helpotetaan, avataan kalenteriin lisää aikoja.

The city of industry and labour

Written by anne Lahtinen

Tampere is a traditional industrial city, populated by workers and built around large-scale industry. As late as the mid-20th century, industry accounted for more than half of total employment in Tampere.

The traditional smokestack industry has left many traces in the city. The industrial landscape along the Tammerkoski rapids is particularly magnificent, where factory buildings and power plants form a unified entity that reflects the history of industrialisation. The industrial history of Tampere can also be explored in the Industry Museum exhibition, completed in cooperation between the Museum Centre Vapriikki and the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas. The exhibition provides a comprehensive account of the stages of the city’s industrial development from the 19th century to the present day.

Tampere’s industry grew along the Tammerkoski rapids, which provided hydropower. The photo features the factory buildings of Frenckell and Finlayson in the 1920s–1930s.

Founded in 1779, Tampere was still a small rural village in the early 19th century. After Finland was annexed to Russia in 1809, Tampere’s free city rights were renewed. The rights enabled the duty-free import of raw materials and industrial machinery to the city. However, industrialisation suffered a slow start: almost all factories in Tampere went bankrupt during the 19th century.

In the 19th century, the largest factories included a paper mill acquired by J.C. Frenckell, and a cotton mill founded by James Finlayson, whose old buildings can still be admired on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids. The hydropower provided by the rapids is what attracted the entrepreneurs to the city. However, using the water also had its downsides. The Tammerkoski rapids and Lake Pyhäjärvi, located south of Tampere, were used as sewers for the city and industry until the mid-20th century, when attention began to be paid to wastewater treatment.

TAmpErE’S induStriAliSAtion WAS based on the St. Petersburg market, foreign innovations, and entrepreneurs. Products from Tampere were initially transported to the market by horse-drawn wagons. Steamships built in Tampere operated on waterways as early as the mid-19th century, and in 1876, a railway line was built to connect Tampere to St. Petersburg.

Locomotives were also built in Tampere, and the first steam locomotive built by Tampereen Konepaja, later known as Tampella, was completed in the summer of 1900. This locomotive is known by the nickname “Pikkurusko”, and it can be admired in front of the Museum Centre Vapriikki in Tampella. The power of steam is also reflected in Finland’s largest steam engine, located in Finlayson’s historic factory area, which used to produce power for the cotton mill.

Tampere industrialised before the rest of the country, and the city became known as the “Manchester of Finland”. The factories were concentrated in the city, as it ensured a skilled workforce for the factories.

Like in the rest of Finland, the industrialisation of Tampere was mainly built on cheap labour, which migrated to the city in search of better jobs, first from the countryside in the neighbouring areas, and later from even further afield. This gave rise to a group of people who supported themselves on wages and who bought industrially manufactured products.

Workers did not have enough time, for example, to make their own shoes or to bake their own bread. Therefore, Tampere had numerous bakeries, which is why the city was called “Rieväkylä” (barley bread village), among other things. The food industry gained momentum in the early 20th century as the industry became increasingly mechanised.

In thE SEcond half of the 19th century, three out of four residents in Tampere were labourers. No other city in Finland had a population with such a high rate of labourers. The proportion of women in the workforce was particularly high. Child labour was also used, but the need for it lessened as machines developed.

Textile factories established in Tampere, such as Finlayson and Suomen Trikoo, attracted so many young, unmarried female workers that the city was still known as the “women’s city” in the 20th century. In addition to cotton, linen, wool and knitted fabrics, ready-made garments were also manufactured in the city. The textile industry formed the backbone of the city’s industry until the 1960s.

Factory workers lived in close quarters. Many of the current districts were once working-class districts built on the outskirts of Tampere. Such areas include Tammela, Pispala, Amuri and Kyttälä, which was Finland’s first industrial suburb. Later, the old wooden house blocks were demolished to make way for more modern housing. The old workers’ housing with communal kitchens can be explored at the Amuri Museum of Workers’ Housing, which is open in summer.

A scale model of Pispala and a worker’s cottage can be admired in the “Meirän

kaupunki” (Our Town) exhibition of the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas.

The majestic Sulzer steam engine was launched in 1900 and used until the 1950s. The giant machine can be found at the Steam Engine Museum of the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas.

TAMPERE INDUSTRIALISED BEFORE THE REST OF THE COUNTRY, AND THE CITY BECAME KNOWN AS THE “MANCHESTER OF FINLAND”.

ThE GroWth of the working population eventually changed the whole of society. During the general strike, which spread from Russia to Finland in 1905, as many as 40,000 people gathered in Tampere to demand the right to vote, freedom of assembly, and an eight-hour working day.

As a result of the general strike, Finland transformed from a conservative class-based society to one of the most modern democracies in the world, as women were also granted the right to vote and stand for election. The general strike inspired workers to establish local trade unions, and many factories faced fierce industrial action in the following years. The requirement for an eight-hour working day was enshrined in law in 1917, the same year that Finland declared its independence.

Between the world wars, Tampere was the largest industrial city in Finland, although the global recession reduced wages and created unemployment in the early 1930s. In addition to traditional industries, the chemical industry, for example, grew as more and more products were made from plastic and rubber.

During the Second World War, factories manufactured products for the defence forces, and there was little left for ordinary consumers. The war showed how dependent Tampere’s industry was on foreign raw materials, and the textile industry was particularly affected by the situation. The metal industry, on the other hand, grew during the war due to military orders.

AftEr loSinG thE war, Finland had to pay hefty war reparations, which further boosted the growth of the metal industry. The State

Aircraft Factory (Valtion lentokonetehdas) manufactured the most significant war reparation products.

Textiles and shoes from Tampere were also soon exported to the Soviet Union. Tampere’s Tammela, where numerous shoe factories operated until the 1990s, was known as Finland’s shoemaking district. Finland’s first shoe factory had been established in the city more than 100 years earlier when an industrialist noticed that hand-made shoes were too expensive for many.

From the 1960s onwards, the need for labour in Tampere’s industry gradually reduced with increased automation and efficiency. The liberalisation of international trade, the oil crisis, cheap imports and, ultimately, the collapse of the Soviet Union pushed industries into difficulties.

Many industrial companies downsized their operations or merged with other companies. The two universities that moved to the city as early as the 1960s brought new know-how to the region, and the city of labourers also became a city of students and engineers.

The Tampere University of Technology collaborated with local industrial companies right from the beginning. As a result of the collaboration, the world’s first smartphone, the Nokia Communicator, was developed in 1996, among other things.

Industrial companies have relocated their production to countries with cheaper labour, but close cooperation between companies, the university and research institutes has ensured the continuity of product development in Tampere. The export industry, with manufacturing and smart machines at its core, is the lifeblood of the city. The tale of the city as the cradle of industry isn’t over yet! s

The Industry Museum exhibition, which will open in June, tells the two-hundred-year-old story of Tampere’s industry as part of the global industrial revolution. The Industry Museum exhibition is available at the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas. FINNISH

SEE ON MAP (PAGE 19)

AS A RESULT OF THE COLLABORATION, THE WORLD’S FIRST SMARTPHONE, THE NOKIA COMMUNICATOR, WAS DEVELOPED IN 1996

COLUMN

What I dream about when I dream about coffee

Once upon a time I was an international adventuress: the kind of cosmopolitan lady who travelled the world, met interesting people and stayed at hotels with chandeliers, spas and names like The Grand This, The Great That and Something Palace.

This is how I would like my fictionalized biography to begin, when somebody writes it in a hundred years’ time. Truth be told, the reality is somewhat more prosaic: I did use to travel a lot, but it was mainly for work. Most of the time, when I got to my hotel room at the end of a long day, I wanted nothing more than to collapse in bed. The preceding twenty-four hours were frequently spent on packed trains, sitting at various airports waiting for delayed flights, or working 14-hour days consisting of school visits, library talks and book festivals.

If there was a spa, I rarely found the time to enjoy it; if there were chandeliers, I barely noticed them because I was so focused on getting some sleep. It may or may not be true that my hotel dinner once consisted of a chocolate bunny gifted to me on a school visit, because it was late at night and no other food was available within the nearest hundred kilometres. As it turns out, the glamorous life of a travelling author is a lot less glamorous than one might think.

OnE thinG, hoWEVEr, remained a constant pleasure on these trips. I would always report home about it, wherever I was in the world: the morning coffee at the hotel breakfast. In the words of special agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks, “The true test of any hotel, as you well know, Diane, is that morning cup of coffee.”

In the past year, like so many of us, I have been mostly homebound. When I talk about my latest novel Kuunpäivän kirjeet, it is mainly virtually. And when I dream of travelling, I find myself dreaming of memorable cups of coffee I have encountered. These may not always be the most impressive at the culinary level, but are etched on my memory for other reasons, such as the setting, life events, or the novelty of the experience.

Written by emmi itäranta

ThErE WAS A wondrous cappuccino I had on the top floor of a hotel with a view over Tokyo after I had just arrived in Japan for a book fair. Later that same week, I drank a strong, hot cup of filtered coffee at a ryokan, a traditional inn in Kyoto while watching the heavy rain falling on the deep-green leaves in the garden outside. In Latvia, I stayed at a boutique hotel just before Christmas one year: a lovely breakfast buffet with one of the most outstanding coffees I have tried. “Coffee report: five out of five cups,” I texted home. In rural Virginia, US, at a hotel that probably was the only one in town, my report read: “Five different types of coffee (filtered, decaf, instant, with added sugar, and extra strong, in case you were wondering), but nothing at the buffet that is recognisable as fruits or vegetables – maple syrup does not count. Four cups out of five.”

Oh, And thAt hotel in Twin Peaks? It exists, and I once stayed there too. I do not remember a chandelier, but in that setting any coffee would have tasted of dreams.

While I wait for my life as a tired travelling author – by which I of course mean a glamorous international adventuress – to resume, I dream fondly of these coffee-drinking experiences, and many more to come. Of placing my hands around the cup at a hotel, of taking that first sip of the morning, and of the feeling of freedom it always brings: that anything is possible that day. s

Emmi Itäranta is a Finnish bestselling novelist whose work has been translated into more than 20 languages. She lives and writes in Canterbury, UK.

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