In the picture Fafa Ruffino, Dobet Gnahoré and Mamani Keïta.
Photo: Real World Records

Live festival weekend kicks off

The 2022 World Village Festival culminates this weekend (28–29 May) in concerts, talks and discussions, civil society organisation exhibition stands and a relaxed, inspiring and broad-minded atmosphere. This year, the long-established free festival happens at new sites at Helsinki’s Tiivistämö event venue, Allas Sea Pool, Market Square and Temppeliaukio Church. The theme of the festival is the Boundaries of Our Planet.   

Three years of waiting are finally over as the civic engagement festival kicks off in full swing at new venues in Helsinki this weekend. The World Village Festival already opened on Monday with films available for online viewing. Wednesday saw a film screening and discussion at Kino Regina.   

– All of us in the festival organisation have so been looking forward to this. We finally get to meet the audience, see all the happy faces and get together to make the world a better place, says World Village Festival Communications Manager Nelli Korpi.   

At the start of the year, the pandemic situation still appeared very uncertain. Had the situation turned for the worse over the spring, the financial risks of organising a large event would have been too high. That is why a decision was made to scale down the event this year.  

– After the long pandemic period, there’s clear demand for people getting together and meeting each other while enjoying current debates, advocacy opportunities and culture, Korpi continues.  

– We’re really happy that, despite the challenges, we’re able to provide our audience with a free festival, although on a smaller scale and although we couldn’t fit the hugely popular food and bazaar stands in our setup this year.   

This year’s festival takes place at multiple venues for practical reasons, but the plan for next year is to organise the World Village Festival again as a single large event at the Suvilahti events site during the last weekend of May.  

The World Village Festival talks and discussions programme takes place at Tiivistämö and is streamed online. The festival’s concert venues are the Allas Sea Pool, Tiivistämö and Temppeliaukio Church. The exhibitors’ Market of Possibilities takes place at the Market Square. The documentary films can be viewed at the Online Cinema. Admission to all events is free. 

World Village Festival 28.–29.5.2022, Helsinki & worldvillage.fi 

Online Cinema 23.–29.5.  
Online 28.5. 11–19, 29.5. 11–18.  
Tiivistämö 28.5. 11–23, 29.5. 11–19.  
Allas Sea Pool 29.5. 11–20.  
Market Square 29.5. 11–19.  
Temppeliaukio Church 29.5. 18–19.  

Read more about the programme >> 
Check out the schedule >> 

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 

Press photos 
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram  
#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.