Events

The first part of the Flow Festival 2010 program has been released! See below for additional information and stay tuned for more acts to be confirmed soon.

As premiered last year, Flow Festival will begin with the Opening Concert held prior to the festival on Wednesday, August 11. The event, co-produced by Flow, the Helsinki Festival and Live Nation, will feature LCD Soundsystem, who will thus appear in Finland for the first time hot on the heels of their eagerly-awaited new album released in May. The full line up of the Opening Concert will be announced later, and the ticket sales start on Monday 17 May.

The Flow Festival weekend program will include soon-to-be superstar vocalist M.I.A., the French duo Air planning an audiovisual spectacle at Flow, the Icelandic vocalist Jónsi also known from Sigur Rós, and the British indie sensation The xx, which ranks among the most requested acts for this year’s festival.

The British indie pop newcomer Marina And The Diamonds, the highly-regarded producer Four Tet, and the Swedish indie favorite The Radio Dept, each come to Flow hot on the heels of their new albums. As a very special additions to the Flow Festival lineup, the Finnish funk eccentric Jimi Tenor and the Nigerian afrobeat legend Tony Allen make the live debut of their “Inspiration/Information” album concept, and the American jazz vocal great José James sits in with the Finnish saxophone player Timo Lassy’s extended ensemble.

The new wave of indie rock from the US is well featured at Flow this time around. The Drums, Beach House, Surfer Blood and Girls offer a good peek at the hottest new sounds coming from across the Atlantic. The Syrian vocalist Omar Souleyman is one of the potential surprise hits of Flow Festival, whereas the Berlin-based RotFront comes strong with their Balkan-infused party sounds. As a new feature, Flow Festival 2010 will feature a series of partially seated concerts held at the Voimala club venue during the early evenings of the festival weekend. The three concerts will feature the Norwegian Ulver, showcasing their highly evolved dark sound aesthetics, and the Malian master of the kora instrument, Ballaké Sissoko. The rest of the Voimala concert billing will be announced later.

Flow Festival has been known to have a strong club roster and this year’s event is no exception. The clubs will feature hard-hitters in minimalist techno pioneer Ricardo Villalobos, disco legend DJ Harvey, Diplo, performing a DJ set and also with his Major Lazer project, the rising young gun of dubstep, Joker, and the US-based acts Sleigh Bells and Rye Rye.

New Finnish music is also well represented at Flow. This time around, the festival bill includes Husky Rescue, Villa Nah, Ricky-Tick Big Band, Clouds, Bongo Rock, Kiki Pau and Yona & Liikkuvat Pilvet, with many more domestic acts to be added. The concept of experimental music and visual arts presented at Flow will continue expanding as the Finnish artist duo Grönlund-Nisunen displays a unique installation at the Tiivistämö venue. The musical programming heard at the venue will be released later.

The Flow Festival tickets go on sale on Monday, April 26 online at Tiketti, Lippupiste, and Stupido Shop. The sales will begin with the three-day festival ticket and the day tickets will go on sale later on as the billings per day are finalized.