The World Village Festival for sustainable development will focus on environmental and climate issues as well as refugees and peace this spring. This year’s theme is the Boundaries of Our Planet. The wellbeing of our planet is a concern for us all.
Organised as a hybrid festival this year, the free event will happen on sites around Helsinki as well as online during the last week of May (23–29 May 2022). The film programme will be screened at the Online Cinema and can be viewed free of charge throughout Finland during the festival week. The stancetaking and solutions-oriented talks and discussions on Saturday and Sunday will take place at the Tiivistämö event venue in the Suvilahti district of Helsinki and will also be streamed live on the World Village Festival website.
The main music event will be organised on Sunday at the open-air stage of Allas Sea Pool and feature a fabulous line-up of international and Finnish groups. There will also be concerts on Saturday night at Tiivistämö and on Sunday night at the Temppeliaukio Church. The Market of Possibilities will see exhibitors spread across Helsinki’s Market Square on Sunday.
Les Amazones d’Afrique finally coming to Finland
The societally active West African supergroup Les Amazones d’Afrique were already lined up for the World Village Festival for two consecutive years, but the coronavirus pandemic threw several spanners in the works. This May, the waiting will finally be rewarded. Blending pan-African styles, electronic sounds and contemporary pop, the collective addresses hard-hitting themes such as violence against women, sexual identity and forced marriage. At the World Village Festival, the vocal line-up will feature Mamani Keïta, Fafa Ruffino and Dobet Gnahoré.
Also playing on the Allas Sea Pool stage will be Santrofi, a collective of eight young musicians. Providing a cocktail of Ghanaian highlife, Caribbean styles, Congolese soukous and Nigerian afrobeat, Santrofi played several major festivals around the world in 2019 before the pandemic, with members of the band also having toured with legends including Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas and Gyedu Blay Ambolley.
The musical highlight of the Festival Saturday will be the evening gig of Orkesta Mendoza at Tiivistämö. Representing the musical melting pot of the US-Mexico border region, the band combines pop and rock with Latin American ranchera, son and cumbia rhythms. Sergio Mendoza, the frontman of the band last seen in Finland at the 2017 Helsinki Festival, is also known as a member of the Mexican band Mexrrissey and the US group Calexico.
The music programme of the World Village Festival will also include a live concert at the Temppeliaukio Church featuring the collaboration of Nicole Willis and the Gospel Helsinki choir that mesmerised the online audience at last year’s World Village Festival, as well as the children’s band Pikku Papun Orkesteri playing at Allas Sea Pool.
Environmental defenders in danger
The talks and discussions programme will include Kenyan activist Phyllis Omido, dubbed the Erin Brockovich of East Africa, and Finnish Extinction Rebellion activist Iiris Laisi discussing the challenges of environmental activists around the world. Former International Executive Director of Greenpeace International and Secretary-General of Amnesty International, South African environmental and human rights defender Kumi Naidoo will focus on climate justice in his keynote speech. The spoken word act produced for the World Village Festival will showcase the wordsmithing talents of Laura Eklund Nhaga, Paleface and Hassan Maikal.
Survival of indigenous peoples affects the future of nature on our planet
Most of the documentaries will see their Finnish premiere at the World Village Festival Online Cinema. World-premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2021, FloreVasseur’s film Bigger Than Us shows how young people all over the world are fighting for human rights, the climate and social justice. Céline Cousteau’s Tribes on the Edge (2019) uncovers the severe health crisis and the devastating diseases faced by Amazonian indigenous peoples and shows how our future is interwoven with the future of nature on our planet. Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper’s Metamorphosis (2018) is a magical and poetic film depicting the true scale of the global environmental crisis.
The majority of the talks and discussions programme will be published on 7 April. The art programme, details of the Market of Possibilities as well as more music, films, talks and discussions will be published on 21 April. Admission to all events will be free.
World Village Festival 23.–29.5.2022, Helsinki & worldvillage.fi
Online Cinema 23.–29.5. Films.
Tiivistämö Live 28.5. 11–23, 29.5. 11–18. Talks and discussions, evening concert, art exhibition, terrace.
Tiivistämö Online 28.5. 11–19, 29.5. 11–18. Talks and discussions.
Allas Sea Pool 29.5. 11–20. Concerts and art.
Market Square 29.5. 11–19. Market of Possibilities and art.
Temppeliaukio Church 29.5. 18–19. A concert.
Exhibitor stands for Market of Possibilities
A limited number of exhibitor stands can be booked for Market of Possibilities, that is organized 29 May from 11.00 to 19.00 at Market Square, Helsinki. By participating in the event you will get to join in the unique atmosphere of the World Village Festival and reach thousands of people interested in sustainable development, civil society’s access to influence and global issues. Read more about Market of Possibilities.
More information
Communications Manager: Nelli Korpi, nelli.korpi@fingo.fi, +358 50 317 6698
Programme Manager: Johanna Eurakoski, johanna.eurakoski@fingo.fi, +358 50 317 6696
#WorldVillageFestival
World Village Festival is Finland’s leading event for global action for the whole family, an admission free cultural festival, and a trade fair for sustainable development. The event will be organized in Helsinki and online 23.–29.5.2022 with “The boundaries of our planet” as the theme. The main organizer is Finnish Development NGOs Fingo. The main partners of the festival are the Helsinki Federation of Parishes, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the European Commission Representation in Finland, the European Parliament Liaison Office in Finland and the Maailman Kuvalehti magazine.
