Newsletter
Oulu2026 Newsletter
Subscribe to our Newsletter and get updates on local cultural personalities, stories, press releases and opportunities for international artists.
Newsletters 2024
June / 2024: Summer highlights in Oulu2026 region, Venice Art Biennale 2026 exhibition to Oulu, Oulu2026 Stage at Qstock Festival, Fascinating northern stories: Sound of the North route
April / 2024: Tales of Tar, Sápmi Triennale, Open Call: Solstice Festival 2024, Delta Life, Culture Next conference, Guide for sustainable events, TMW Oulu2026 presents.
Interested in volunteering?
We welcome all participants to register as volunteers, aka Cultural Ambassadors. At the moment we have a limited amount of volunteer positions open. Closer to 2026, we have numerous interesting tasks opening up related to e.g. event production, communication, information, and guidance. We also organise training and own programme for volunteers.
Feel free to leave your contacts with the same form as subscribing to our newsletter. We will reach out to our network as our programme starts to take shape. Welcome aboard!
For more information:
Heli Metsäpelto
Head of Community
heli.metsapelto@oulu2026.eu
Latest
Visual artist Eloise Gillow to create the Oulu2026 mural in Rajakylä, Oulu
Visual artist Eloise Gillow has been selected through a global application portfolio process from among 530 applicants as the artist to create the Oulu2026 mural. The mural will be unveiled in Rajakylä in September. “We hope that culture and art will become an even...
Arctic Food Lab: Why does it matter? Views from two experts in Oulu
Arctic Food Lab is a trademark of Oulu2026 - European Capital of Culture that aims to promote northern gastronomy focussed on local food. Erika Benke has met two food industry professionals in Oulu to hear their thoughts on how Arctic Food Lab intends to take the...
Culture personality of the Week: Petri Kuusela
Our Cultural Personality of the week is Petri Kuusela, an Oulu-based guitarist, producer, songwriter and educator. Petri says he has been given the tools to form a positive and restorative relationship with listening, playing and creating music from a young age....
Cultural Personality of the week: Charles Gil
This week’s Cultural Personality is Charles Gil, Festival Manager heading the Raahe Jazz on the Beach for the seventh year running. Hailing from Lyon, France, Charles arrived in Finland in 1995 and the very next year, 1996, he visited the Raahe Jazz on the Beach for...
Combining Art and Technology for Oulu2026
The fairy tale wall is a large interactive touch screen that creates a magical immersive space for children. In addition to watching and getting involved with a fairy tale, the screen has an option to create a snowstorm, make waves in a river, build a pile of colourful autumn leaves and even chase northern lights – all that simply by drawing with fingers. There’s also a panel where users can play musical instruments. What makes the screen even more unique is that you don’t even have to touch it: the surface is so sensitive that it reacts to hand waves.
Oulu2026 lounge offers free multicultural performances and live music during Qstock festival weekend
The traditional Qstock Festival takes place in late July, but this year the festival features also free-entry Oulu2026 park in Linnansaari from Thursday 28th to Saturday 30th July. The park is located near the Qstock festival area offering visitors a relaxing place to enjoy festival and culture atmosphere free of charge.
Oulu2026 Producer Heikki Myllylahti tells us that the Oulu2026 programme for the park is now ready for publication!
Globally local
The travel and event management specialist Go Arctic is the latest business to join the Arctic Food Lab network. Established in 2008, the enterprise is owned by Sipe Åqvist together with Kirsi Eskola. Åqvist says that sourcing locally has always been at the heart of...
Oulu2026 Cultural Personality: Jetta Huttunen
The eighth ART Ii Biennial that took place this June featured ecologically sustainable environmental and sculpture art for the northern environment within the areas of significant cultural heritage in Ii and the Ii Environmental Art Park. Involved in the ART Ii Biennial organisation since 2018, Jetta hails from Oulu but has also lived in Lapland for long periods of time.
“A noisy village is a living village”
The first ever whole-weekend Maakinen Martinniemi (the Magical Martinniemi) festival took place this June. The event’s host, Jukka Takalo, says that a multi-artistic community event is extremely important for the entire region. The event was first launched in 2009 when Takalo and J.A. Mäki came up with the idea of staging a cultural event in the controversial Kurtinhauta seaside area.
Music, participatory art and delicious food – Oulu2026 park opens in Linnansaari during Qstock weekend
Oulu was recently elected the European Capital of Culture, which will give us the opportunity to enjoy its growing and enhanced cultural offerings. The European Capital of Culture programme can also be seen in the production of the largest music festival in Northern...