Tinariwen and Wigwam Experience complement the Huvila programme
Two more Huvila concerts have been added to the Helsinki Festival programme with performances by desert blues band Tinariwen and Wigwam Experience playing the classic Nuclear Nightclub album. Other new listings in the programme are Teddy Rok, Bad Sauna and Lyyti.
Grammy winner Tinariwen will start their first tour in more than three years in the Huvila Festival Tent on Saturday 20 August. Tinariwen’s guitar-driven desert blues mix the folk songs of the Tuareg and northern parts of Mali with western rock and blues. The evening will open with Teppo Mäkynen aka Teddy Rok, whose seldom-heard live experimental jazz album Atonal Drums infuses minimalist drum rhythms with electronic elements.
Wigwam Experience, formed of members from different eras of Wigwam, one of the most legendary bands in Finnish rock, will appear in Huvila on Thursday 25 August, when the band will play the classic 1975 album Nuclear Nightclub in its entirety. Nuclear Nightclub was named the most significant Finnish album of all times in a poll by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. Other classic Wigwam songs will be heard in the second half of the concert.
Bad Sauna and Lyyti are also featured in the Huvila programme. Bad Sauna, one of the most lauded indie rock bands, will be the opening act for Kurt Vile & The Violators’ gig on Tuesday 23 August. Lyyti, which was artist of the year in the Indie Awards, will perform before the US singer/songwriter Lucy Dacus on Monday 29 August instead Natalie Bergman as announced earlier.
Helsinki Festival will take place between 12 August and 4 September, Huvila will host concerts on each day of the festival. Other names announced earlier in the Huvila programme include Angélique Kidjo, Low, Taylor Mac, Agnes Obel, 22-Pistepirkko and J. Karjalainen. Designed by JKMM Architects, the new Huvilaranta waterfront park will host a diverse restaurant scene as well as a programme for the public throughout the festival.
Image: Marie Planeille