The annual Faces Festival will be staged for the last time next August – at least in its current form.
The first “Faces Ethnofestival” was held at Raseborg Castle ruins in 1998 with the aim of giving various minorities a chance to bring their own cultures into the spotlight. Besides music, the event has always featured food, dance, films, literature, art and handicrafts from around the world. Politicians including former presidents Tarja Halonen and Martti Ahtisaari have visited the event.
The festival later moved on to the old Billnäs ironworks area near Fiskars for several years before finding its final home at the seaside forest of Gumnäs near the centre of Pohja. All are located in Western Uusimaa, where festival founder and director Börje Mattsson has worked as regional immigration coordinator since 1991.
Mission accomplished?
“Faces was established in a certain situation with a certain purpose,” he told Yle. “The basic task then was to show that Finland is a multicultural country and to provide a stage for various cultures to present themselves. Now this has been accomplished.”
Mattsson points out that multiculturalism can now be presented in a much broader range of contexts than when the festival began.
Many summer festivals – including Faces – have suffered financial difficulties in recent years. However Mattson insists that money did not play a role in the decision to phase the festival out.
“The last few years have ended up on the plus side. We’ve gotten the finances into shape and gradually paid off our old debts. But Faces has been very financially heavy to arrange, certainly no goldmine,” Mattsson says.
"A nice inner-circle thing"
Each year, Faces has attracted a regular crowd of a few thousand free-spirited people from around Finland and abroad. They include a few local youth and immigrants, many parents with kids who stay at its family campground, and ageing hippies in VW busses.
“Faces has become established as a nice inner-circle thing, and thus no longer fulfils its purpose. Then you just have to bravely say that now it’s time to spend this energy on something else in reaction to the present day,” declares Mattson.
The woods and beach of Gumnäs are pleasant – but not enough to attract a new, larger audience – or readily accessible without a car.
“In recent years the festival became a smoothly-running event in the forest for people who have already embraced multiculturalism. Maybe the next phase is for the festival to be where people already are. Then you’re talking about an urban multicultural festival and that’s certainly the direction in which our new thoughts will go.”
Out with a bang
Mattsson promises that Faces will go out with a bang in the first three days of August. He says this year’s theme will be “The Last Waltz”, named after a song and album by Canadian folk-rockers The Band.
“The last Faces will be the best ever, a real manifesto celebration,” he says.
Mattsson says that he will develop his visions of a new multicultural event for at least a couple of years.
“There are already clear thoughts about it, but it has to be set up and built properly,” he says.
