Finland’s biggest arts festival, the Helsinki Festival, broke its visitor target. The overall number of visitors to the Helsinki Festival, which finished on Monday 31 August, reached almost 288,000. Ticketed events attracted a record-breaking 92,000 visitors, whilst 196,000 art lovers participated in the free events. The Helsinki Festival also set a new record in the sale of Baltic Sea Tickets. More than 5,800 Baltic Sea Tickets were sold, with almost €12,000 worth of funds for the protection of the Baltic Sea collected.

Some of the events can continue to be explored after the actual festival: Susanne Gottberg and Markus Kåhre’s art exhibition can be viewed in Amos Anderson Art Museum up until 2 November and Nagisa Oshima’s retrospective’s last shows can be viewed in Cinema Orion on 12 September.

The next Helsinki Festival is from 20 August until 5 September 2010.
The Night of the Arts is on 27 August 2010.