Europeade is the largest folklore event in Europe and in 2017 it arrives in Finland for the first time. The host city Turku on the western coast of Finland will receive close to 5,000 folk music and folk dance fans, as well as tens of thousands of spectators between 26th and 30th July 2017.

Europeade is a meeting place of art and culture celebrating an open and multicultural Europe. Music and dance groups in their national costumes from dozens of countries showcase their skills in the event. Performances, concerts, and parades will be held both on the stages and in the streets and markets.

Folklore will be seen and heard throughout the city before, during and even after the event. Folklore fans are not a marginal group, since there are about 25,000 folk dance enthusiasts and tens of thousands of folk music enthusiasts in Finland.

This folklore party has been organised since 1964. The Finnish coordinator for Europeade is Hilu Toivonen-Alastalo, an experienced and active folklore pro, who only has one criterion for a successful event:

-We are going to make the best Europeade ever! Finnish folklore is strong and full of life, Turku is a great setting for public festivities, and the event gets a high profile flavour from Finland’s centenary on 2017.

The event is a part of the Finland 100 years programme, which means that the folk music and dance enthusiasts and the spectators will be a part of Finland’s independence celebrations.

-The Europeade in Turku also aims to make it to the Guinness Book of Records with our traditional Finnish folk dance. Our goal is to get a record-breaking number of people to dance the humppa during one evening,” Hilu envisions.

The record-seeking is part of the Dancing Finland 2017 campaign, which is coordinated by Dance Info Finland and is also a part of the Finland 100 years programme. The humppa dance is taught online, in the information sessions, and in the local events before and during Europeade.

Information of Turku sold like hot cakes.

 

Despite the rainy weather dancers representing Turku were happy to take part in the Namur parade.