Forces of Light 2003

A few photos taken around Suomenlinna and Helsinki during the Forces of Light event.

By some stroke of luck on Saturday night, I figured out that the lights in the Old Church Park, a.k.a. Plague Park, were part of something called Forces of Light. The program describes it:

The Beauty of Dark Helsinki

Forces of Light is a nine-year old urban event. During this time our capital Helsinki has become faster, more colourful and more loud. The mission of Forces of light has been to show the city in a different light - both for the inhabitants as for visitors. With small gestures, Forces of Light has demonstrated that Helsinki in the dark period can be quite an intriguing experience. Open-mindedly the festival has mixed urban planning, art and design - acting close to the people and co-operating with them. Helsinki is the City of Light - even in the darkness.

We took the ferry over to Suomenlinna with a friend, Arabella, and wandered through the handicraft market, various art installations, artists workshops and the museum. Sadly, the schedule was wrong and the parade, which was said to start on Suomenlinna, actually started at Plague Park at 4p and we completely missed it. The Helsingin Sanomat had a small blurb and fuzzy picture of it today with a mention that there was some excitement with one of the torches. This would explain why the torches along Bulevardi weren't lit later in the evening and why the performance at 20.30 in the park was done using glowsticks and blacklight instead of fire. I commend the fire artists who, at the last minute, changed the plan and still gave everyone a good show.

It was really cool, interesting and a lot of fun but, hopefully, next year the organisers will do a bit better job of getting the schedule firmed up and synchronised with all the various places which advertise such events since we would really have liked to see the parade and some of the other events we missed only because of incorrect information.