At Kaustinen, this year's attendance was 82,000 people, well short of the target of 100,000. However organisers say that with broad volunteer support from the villagers, the world-music event will be staged again next year for the 44th time.
This year's festival included performers from Scotland, Bulgaria, Spain, the US and the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as many representatives of the region's pelimanni folk tradition.
12th Faces Could Be the Last
Meanwhile the director of the Faces Ethnofestival warns that if this year's event does not make money, it could be the last in its 12-year history. Last year's multi-cultural festival in Billnäs, west Uusimaa, was a financial disaster due to heavy rain and a sharp rent increase.
This year's event begins on Friday in the nearby town of Pohja. The programme includes musicians, dancers and writers from Tibet, Russia, Zimbabwe and Canada, as well as many immigrant artists based in Finland.
The new location, a forested seaside site, is smaller and cheaper. That is essential as the festival organisation is some 160,000 euros in debt.
"This year we have to make a profit," says director Börje Mattsson. "Of course we won't be able to pay off all our debt, but at least part of it. If we end up in the red this year as well, which I don't even want to consider, it will definitely be the end of this event."
He notes the first Faces Festival was held in 1998 in a forest area near the Raseborg castle ruins. "So in a way, we're returning to where started."
The attendance target is 6,000 visitors.
