Get a no-nonsense, fresh take on the festival with this unique awards ceremony – where the only opinions that matter are those of the kids!The premise is simple – a group of kids from one of the schools in Kuopio are chauffeured from event to event, seeing everything in the festival, they offer incisive and audacious opinions. And then they hand out awards! Read more ▸

‘We all like a drink, right?’

Here’s a little show for those of us who like a little drink – and we all like a drink, right? Bryony Kimmings likes a drink and she wants to share a quick one with you. Read more ▸

Visible evidence of the first ever ANTI festival has stood in Kuopio’s train station for the last ten years: a series of life-size line drawings grace the walls of the station’s passageway, silently watching passengers coming and going. Read more ▸

Thanks to Facebook we now have the opportunity to expand our circle of friends to hundreds, even thousands of people we may only vaguely know. Social networking sites have literally rebuilt our social worlds, complete with their own etiquette and coded behaviour. For many there’s a tension between our undersanding of ’real’ friendship and social networking friendship. Read more ▸

Riding starts from the Festival centre where you can find the Rider Spoke front house. You don’t need anything just come and get the instructions, bike and helmet from the front house and then with a ring of the bell off you ride into the city for a highly inventive game of hide and seek. Read more ▸

One fateful weekend in October 2007 Vasikkasaari island appeared to be inhabited by a madman, a wildman of the lake. Hidden from view and only glimpsed from the shore his desperate calls rallied the city – police lines were jammed, people hurried to the harbour – what was happening, what was he calling, what did he want? Well, he’s back – and this time we can go over to island and meet him. ‘No man is an island’ right? So let’s make contact. Read more ▸

Who’s that hiding around the corner? What’s that moving in the trees? Did you just see what I saw? Take a magical adventure with Beastie! Read more ▸

The designed, built, environment of the city forms the backdrop to our every day lives. We move around a city by habit, using our own network of routes and paths, taking in favourite areas and features. But how well do we know the spaces we inhabit, how often are we caused to stop and look again, as if for the first time? Read more ▸

We all need a helping hand sometimes, sometimes we all need a little lift, something to help our mood, something to hep us on our way. Let the members of TRYST offer you just that – let them take your weight as they carry you on your way. Assisted Street Crossing In Kuopio is just that, you will be assisted, by way of a lift, across the street, carried from one side to the other. The service is completely free of charge and is yours to use at will throughout the festival. Read more ▸

To celebrate the 10th birthday of ANTI Festival, here comes The 100 YEAR OLD ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND. The band will only ever perform once, one song and then bang! They’re gone! Read more ▸

The city hall is the administrational heart and center of each city which represents the people. It is the lap, which, however, seems to hide so much bureaucracy and decision-making filled with mysterious red-tape gibberish in its arms that a layman may feel dizzy just by entering the place through its heavy doors into the grand and echoing hallways – not to mention even daring to publicly protest against those nerve-racking social defects. Read more ▸

You sit in a hairdresser’s chair admiring the view: there I am, there’s my hair. He’s an invitation to change all that, to close your eyes, to forget your hair and to listen – listen to a bespoke, one-off vocal portrait by artist Juha Valkeapää, composed about you and performed for you: a mini-concerto for your ears only. Read more ▸

“To keep on trusting (no matter what) is an act of reattunement”. Bracha Ettinger Read more ▸

‘Happy birthday’ balloons, ‘just married’ balloons, animal balloons – the celebratory, the innocent and the banal. Balloons have a curious presence in our lives: how odd it is to mark life’s landmarks by blowing up coloured latex orbs. But there you go, that’s what we like to do, and it is the festival’s birthday after all! Read more ▸

Three stories from Kuopio: change, life and time

Nine years is a long time. We change, our bodies shift and reshape. The world we live in changes, it is rebuilt, redesigned or simply ages. It’s a wonderful process, part exploration, part adventure, part mourning for what once was. It’s the stuff of life. Read more ▸