Soiva Metsä Festival
Soiva metsä Festival is a free, open-to-all multidisciplinary art festival held in Soiva Metsä, Suomussalmi, from July 3 to 6, 2025.
In this expansive festival, the forest will come alive with a variety of music, theater, installations, performances, social dances, communal singing and playing, workshops, and discussions. The festival will also feature a bookshop cart, a pancake café run by retirees, a forest bar, Tikkupulla´s (sweet-bun-on-a-stick), opportunities to explore civic activism, engaging forest-themed discussions, a resting island, and a chance to sauna on a floating sauna raft in a lake bordering the forested ridges.
The event weaves together multidisciplinary art with statements, proposals, and reflections on the state of forests in Finland and art as a force shaping these multi-species ecosystems. As a whole, it examines the interconnectedness of forests and humanity, emphasizing the forest as an essential prerequisite for all life.
The festival aims to bring together professionals and creators from various fields, critical thinkers, and dreamers. Alongside the audience, these participants will create a weekend-long public celebration that delves into the crucial question of the future of forest use and the values that forests and life in the present era embody.
Soiva Metsä Festival seeks to diversify both national and regional forest discussions, offering new perspectives, approaches, and spaces for different stakeholders to come together. Additionally, it aims to bring thought-provoking and timely culture to an ecologically and socially diverse region. One of the festival's most important reasons for existing is simply the stunning Soiva Metsä itself—and the desire to share this unique experience with more people.
Festival organizers
Soiva Metsä Festival is made possible by a small production team, volunteers, and dedicated festival workers. The team operates under Oikku ry, an organization committed to fostering discussions on the role of art and activism in society, promoting civic engagement, and supporting community development around these themes.
The production team includes: Siiri Hänninen, Maija-Tilda Kovalainen, Laura Jurmu, poa Pohjola, Riina Nykänen, Vertti Korkki, Janika Sistonen, Eemil Tähtinen, Anna Sairinen, Fanny Sillman ja Saana Pohjonen.
With us as well, (THANK YOU!!)
Mummi and ukki – Maija ja Kauko Kovalainen, Annukka Ruuskanen, Ulla Schroderus, Heta Heikkala, Daniela Heimsch, Elsa Lankinen, Cecilia Aintila, Otso Jämsä, Aino Kovalainen, Ada-Karoliina Määttä, Terttu Huttu-Juntunen, Soko Hwang, Minka Virtanen, Paula Kovalainen, Olli Pentikäinen, Paula Markkanen, Jouni ja Leena, Suomussalmen eläkeläiset ry
Volunteering at the Soiva Metsä Festival
Our call for volunteers has just closed and we will be in touch with those who have applied as soon as possible.
If you are interested in volunteering at the Soiva metsä festival, you can contact us directly at soivametsafestivaali@gmail.com ! We will process applications in the order they are received.
Open call to be part of the Soiva metsä festival's book kiosk publication collection
We are assembling a collection of interesting books, booklets, pamphlets, and other publications to be read and sold from a book cart located in the forest during the Soiva Metsä Festival. We invite you to take part in the collection with your own publication!
The open call welcomes a wide variety of works: booklets, comics, photo collections, zines, or other self-published materials that complement the printed world of the festival. The publication may broadly explore themes like forests and forestry, mythologies, resilience, community, humanity, resistance, art, and change.
All sales proceeds from the publications will go directly to the creator’s own MobilePay or PayPal account, so participation requires having one of these apps.
Digital publications can be included in the Soiva metsä festival archive collection on the festival's website.
The open call is open until the end of May. Publications must be delivered to us in Helsinki during May or brought to Soiva Metsä in July by the creators themselves.
