The first festivals of 2025 are starting this week in Tampere. Tampere Chamber Music invites you to explore chamber music, movement, and well-being. Tomatoes! Tomatoes! stand up festival brings the most interesting names of Finnish comedy into the limelight.
Tampere Chamber Music
20.–26.1.2025
Tampere Chamber Music digs into the core of chamber music and well-being. The festival’s theme – Ytimessä / In the Core – explores breathing, body and emotions, the diversity of nature, hope, and the meaning of culture.
The musical centerpiece of the programme is Brahms and Beethoven, the creators of the ageless and central production of chamber music. The musicians who play together have come to love especially the beauty, passion, timelessness and sensitivity of Brahms’s compositions.
In addition to Pirkanmaa Music College and Tampere Hall, the festival also offers music stops at the Moomin Museum, Fazer Café Hämeenkatu, and at the Old Church in Keskustori. As a new experience, Tampere Chamber Music organizes a dance event at Tuulensuu Palatsi, where the Friday night swings to the rhythms of old jazz led by Jukka Perko and the PreBoppers band
Many Tampere Chamber Music events have free entry, and for example on Saturday 25 January in Tampere-talo, you can hear pianist Natacha Kudritskaya’s interpretation of Debussy, violist Yuval Gotlibovich’s new premiere composition, and a joint performance of the festival’s artistic director, pianist Heini Kärkkäinen and dancer Pontus Sundset. On the same day, there will also be an open lecture on the emotions and movement of the body, and a panel discussion where, along with Heini Kärkkäinen, Tampere Theater director Mikko Kanninen, dancer-choreographer Tiina Lindfors and actor Arttu Soilumo will be discussing culture. The discussion is moderated by author, journalist and presenter Roman Schatz.
Programme and tickets (only in Finnish): https://www.tampere-talo.fi/tapahtuma/tampere-chamber-music-2025/
Festival’s website: https://www.tamperechambermusic.com/
Tomatoes! Tomatoes! Stand-up Festival
22.–25.1.2025
Tomatoes! Tomatoes! is a stand-up festival organized annually in Tampere and has been known as a pioneer of Finnish stand-up events since 2002. The program includes various comedy themed nights and roasts, in addition to which the event offers budding comedians the opportunity to showcase their skills on stage.
The 2025 event will be opened on Wednesday by Fredi Lilius’s comedic quiz Sinnepäin and on Thursday at the Main Library Metso by the open panel discussion What can we laugh at? The limits of good taste, taboos, and the possibilities of a safe space in comedy will be discussed by entertainment and comedy multi-talents Anitta Ahonen, Juuso “Köpi” Kallio, Johanna Tohni and Tommi Vänni.
The comedy clubs start on Thursday evening with the rainbow-ish theme programme Queer Tomatoes by Qoomikot. During the three days of the festival, no less than 60 Finnish comedy professionals and rising talents will be seen on the stages of Teerenpeli, TTT-Klubi, and Solo Sokos Hotel Torni. In addition to the traditional stand-up gigs, there will be an anticipated roast where the actor Eero Aho and the scriptwriter-director Riku Suokas from the Koskinen TV series will be made fun of by the sharp-tongued roastmasters Ali Jahangiri, Anitta Ahonen, André Wickström, and Stan Saanila.
Programme and tickets (only in Finnish): https://tomaattejatomaatteja.com/
Next ahead:
5–9 March: Tampere Film Festival
26–30 March: Tampere Kuplii Comics Festival
4–6 April: Folk Dance Festival TRADI
20–25 May: Tampere Dance Current – Contemporary Dance Festival
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Photo: Markku Uusitalo
