One of the Helsinki region's largest annual events, Flow Festival, announced on Monday that it will return to the Suvilahti district in 2024 after all, reversing an earlier decision to relocate after this August's event.
A private company plans to build Suvilahti Event Hub, a new event and entertainment centre including a 5,000-seat concert venue, on part of the former gasworks site.
Construction was to have begun at the end of this summer. In late June, however, the city of Helsinki said that two complaints had been submitted to the Helsinki Administrative Court regarding the plan within an appeal period. The appellants allege that the Helsinki City Council's decision on the plan was unlawful and are calling on the court to annul it.
"The legal processing of complaints may mean that construction is not underway in the area until the summer of 2024. In this case, the area of the Suvilahti site plan could still be used for events in the summer of 2024 as well," the city said.
Tuska, a heavy metal festival held each June, which is smaller than Flow, had previously announced that it would in any case still return to Suvilahti in 2024.
The city said that its goal is still "that the development of Suvilahti will be realized as planned, even if later than desired".
It noted that during the construction process, the area will not be able to host large events with the exception of Tuska, but expressed the hope that "after its completion, the improved Suvilahti will offer one of the best places in Finland for both indoor and outdoor events all year round".
Flow: "Only an extension"
From 2025 on, the multimedia Flow Festival's plans remain open.
“Suvilahti will undergo major changes during the next few years, so this is only an extension for us," said Flow's artistic director Tuomas Kallio in a press release.
"We get to say a long farewell, so to speak, to the place we’ve grown and built Flow Festival as a beloved event to many and an integral part of the cultural atmosphere of Helsinki," he added.
Flow organisers have remained tight-lipped about the planned new location. This year's festival begins in less than two weeks. Last year, Flow attracted a record 90,000 people over three days.
Construction of the planned Event Hub would lead to the destruction of Europe's largest volunteer-built skateboard park. The city has promised to make a separate site available for a new one.
