Summers in Finland are surprisingly warm and gentle; but those who live anywhere but Northern Europe often have difficulty believing this. So, the country is using the array of games that began as local events and evolving them into fully-fledged tourist attractions, much to the joy of Finland’s struggling economy.
Already well-known for bizarre competitions like wife-carrying races and Air Guitar World Championships, Finland is bracing for another busy summer of fun and frivolous events well worth planning a visit around.
Kicking off the Finnish gaming season is the ever-popular wife-carrying race. On 3 and 4 July you can witness men hauling their wives (or someone else’s) through an obstacle course. Stick around for the 12th-annual Swamp Football championship on 17-18 July. As you can imagine, it involves playing football on the muddiest, messiest pitch possible.
August 7-8 turns up the heat with the annual World Sauna Championships, where competitors must “sit in the sauna with buttocks and thighs on the seat” at all times. This particular event is a major source of pride for the Finns, who are connoisseurs of the pastime.
The extremely entertaining Air Guitar Championships in Finland’s far northern town of Oulu takes place from August 19-21. And a few days later on August 22, visitors can enter the Mobile Phone Throwing Contest and see if they can hurl their phone, preferably a Nokia, farther than anyone else.
These are just the main events created by the Finns to revel in their brief but glorious summer months. Such is the level of fun that they are all emerging as major tourist draws, gaining popularity every year.
[…] Finland readying for another season of crazy summer events […]
[…] Finland readying for another season of crazy summer events […]
Alfred’s characterization of Finns isn’t widely off the mark, although he concentrates solely on the negative aspects (I am a Finn myself). But I taste sour grapes there as well, because one could easily write a similar rant about ANY other nationality.
Sir Euro would do well to learn writing without Caps Lock on ( <- see, a Finn trying to teach others). Moreover, at least here in the Southern Finland the winter isn’t particularly cold, so it can not be used as an excuse for anything.
@ALFRED
if you really think fins only could go wild (and not as ‘wild’ as its description written onto a vocabulary) , I suggest you to travel more around the World …. you’ll be able to see what real ‘delirium’ is.
Greetings from Mafia/Gansta Corp.
Finland is one of the nicest countries I’ve been to.
???
What are you talking about? I LOVE fins..
Anyway, I only can say that: Paradise does not exist, but the hell has an awful lot margin for improvement!
I have been dealing closely with Finns for the last ten years of my life and for this reason I no longer find their bizarre culture, behavior and national personality to be anything but nauseating. The typical Finnish person is introverted, morose, rude and an egotist. It is a neurotic country and people. At first their sense of superiority combined with their ignorance is maddening, but over time one gets a sense of pity for these social outcasts. In response to Sir Euro, your writing skills leave much to be desired, but your point is well taken. Finns, for example, are forever telling the world about their superior education system, their language skills, their enlightenment on world issues, etc., etc. My experience with them, and it is considerable, is that they are the “hicks” or “rednecks” of Europe. They are, in reality, narrow minded, isolated and ignorantly arrogant bumpkins who jump on a plane, get drunk and go out to lecture the world on how things should be done. Anyone who knows a Finn has heard variations of the phrase “We would never do things this way in Finland”. It is a tiny country of small minded people who are shockingly unaware of their own puny place in the world. Truly a place to avoid – trust me, you aren’t missing much if you don’t go to the wife carrying contest.
THE EDITOR: “Summers in Finland are surprisingly warm and gentle; but those who live anywhere but Northern Europe often have difficulty believing this”
YES BECAUSE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH IS IGNORANT TO THIS AND THINK THAT THERE IS ALWAYS SNOW UP THERE. KAMON, GET A LIFE!!
EVERYONE NOT LIVING IN NORTH EUROPEAN COUNTRIES NOW THAT THE SUMMER HAS TO BE AT LEAST NICE IN COUNTRIES LIKE FINLAND. WHY?? BECAUSE IT IS WELL KNOWN THAT WINTERS ARE HORRIBLE, VERY VERY DARK, COLD AND SAD. PEOPLE DIE OF DEPPRESSIONS IN HUNDREDS, ALCOHOLICS PLAGE THE BARS AND 30% OF THE REST THINK AT LEAST TWICE OF COMMITING SUICIDE…
THAT IS HOW BAD THE WINTER IN NORDIC COUNTRIES IS… SO THOSE THAT ARE LUCKY ENOUGH CAN TRAVEL TO MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES AND FEEL MUCH BETTER.
IN THE SUMMERTIME THERE MUCH LESS PEOPLE FROM THOSE VERY COLD COUNTRIES IN THE SOUTH… THAT MAKES EVERYONE NOTICE THAT SUMMER IS SOMEHOW WARM THERE.
I THINK THAT PEOPLE LIVING IN SCANDINAVIA ARE THE ONES WHO VERY OFTEN HAVE A PROBLEM OF KNOWING THE REAL SITUATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. THEY GO SOUTH FOR ONE WEEK OR TWO. SOME NEVER HAVE BEEN EVEN TO DENMARK OR SO… I KNOW THOUSANDS OF ICELANDERS THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN OUT OF ICELAND, AND IF THEY HAVE IT WAS FOR ONE OR TWO WEEKS LONG TIME AGO…
SCANDINAVIANS ARE ONE OF THE WORLDS POPULATIONS WITH LOW RATE OF CONTACT WITH OTHER CULTURES AND EXPERIENCE LIVING IN OTHER COUNTRIES. THAT IS A FACT YOU CAN FIND IN ANY EUROPEAN RESEARCH DATA.
SCANDINAVIANS MOSTLY LIVE ON “PRECONSTRUCTED IDEAS” AND “PREJUDICES” ABOUT THE REST, AND A VERY WRONG IDENTITY OF SUPERIORITY… BUT THE FACT IS THAT SCANDIANAVIAN SOCIETIES ARE REALLY GOING BACK IN MANY THINGS…