Night of the Arts: red giraffes, trash-can drumming and a date at the morgue

The headline event of Night of the Arts 2026 is a parade of giant giraffes. In French company Compagnie Off’s production Les Girafes – An Animal Operetta, enormous magenta giraffes make their way through central Helsinki amid a spectacle of circus, burlesque and operatic singing.

The procession sets off at around 7pm from the junction of Pohjoisesplanadi and Keskuskatu. It continues along Pohjoisesplanadi before turning at Unioninkatu towards Senate Square, where the performance reaches its grand finale.

At 9pm, it is time to leave the giraffes behind and head to the Espa Stage, where Tuomari Nurmio, one of Finnish music’s great mavericks, will perform with his band Luupäät.

While visiting Stefan Bremer’s hugely popular Helsinki by Night photography exhibition, many people have probably wished they could travel back in time to Helsinki’s clubs of the 1980s. Now you can!

Bremer will reveal the fascinating stories behind the photographs during an artist-led tour at 5pm. A discussion of Helsinki nightlife in the 1970s and 1980s begins at 6.30pm, followed by a drag cabaret at 9.30pm. Finally, DJ Avalon will briefly bring the club atmosphere of decades past back to life. Club Dekadenz² continues until 12.30am.

Vallila’s Konepaja has a varied programme, including traditional Finnish-style dancing – think tango, waltz and foxtrot – to the music of the Timo Rahkonen Band from 7 to 10pm.

Free spirit Jarmo is a familiar sight on the shores of Töölönlahti, where he drums on the park’s metal bins using drumsticks taped together. Now he is receiving a fitting tribute from 6 to 8pm, when 100 drummers – including many of Finland’s finest – gather to play together. Stara will provide the bins, and members of the public are welcome to join in.

For something more intimate and atmospheric, head to art bar Hi-Hat, where Topi Paavilainen and Matti Ruuskanen will perform a concert bringing together jazz, folk songs, traditional Finnish dance music and free improvisation.

Helsinki Cathedral will host choir performances from 5 to 7pm, while Kallio Church will stage a four-hour organ marathon from 7 to 11pm. At the easily overlooked Christ Church on Apollonkatu in Töölö, the organists will pull out all the stops with Bach’s monumental Toccata and around ten more toccatas.

Another interesting destination is the pretty yet similarly inconspicuous Sacred Heart Chapel on Kirstinkatu in Kallio, where the Night of the Arts programme includes gospel, classical music and poetry recitals.

At Oulunkylä Church, a new interpretation of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme will be performed at 9pm.

Some serious avant-garde is on offer in the National Library’s beautiful Cupola Hall. Juho Laitinen’s multisensory Kraftverk draws inspiration from a letter in which Jean Sibelius wondered whether musical vibrations might serve as a source of power for urban infrastructure. Sibelius also considered how a field of sound might affect its surroundings and whether, in the long term, it might make city dwellers and animals decidedly peculiar.

Laitinen’s work combines an electroacoustic installation, synthesisers, narration and dance.

Kraftverk consists of a three-hour electroacoustic installation through which visitors can move freely, exploring the effect of the vibrations on their own minds and bodies. The performative sections based on Sibelius’s letter begin at 6.30 and 7.30pm.

The statue of traditional singer Larin Paraske in Hesperia Park, beside Finlandia Hall, will be the setting for a performance of traditional Karelian lament songs on Night of the Arts, from 6 to 7.30pm.

Laments are part of an old Karelian and Ingrian singing tradition. These improvised, poetic songs of mourning have been used to express grief, longing, the pain of letting go and life’s transitions. Finland’s contemporary lament tradition has since developed into a living form of expression within modern culture.

Night of the Arts offers opportunities to venture behind the scenes at numerous venues, particularly theatres. At Helsinki City Theatre, visitors can watch a rehearsal of Kotijoukot from 4.30 to 5.30pm.

At Lilla Teatern, meanwhile, audiences can observe a rehearsal of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s play De obehöriga from 6.30 to 7.30pm.

At the Swedish Theatre, visitors can explore the backstage areas at their own pace. The route passes through the theatre’s workshops, backstage area, laundry room and secret stairwells. Along the way, members of staff will talk about their work.