Värttinä

"The JuuriJuhla-RotFest (Roots Festival) takes place in Espoo each year and says it has its own roots in the pelimanni folk dance music, although most of the concerts range much wider. It featured top names on the Finnish roots music scene."

"One of the best folk music albums in a more traditional style that I've heard for a long time."

A small country must learn how to adapt, cooperate and innovate. Agility is key. Finland has a high degree of social equality, and in music this means that basically anyone can do anything. Creativity and curiosity are the wellspring of the vitality of contemporary Finnish folk music.

Once a year the Folklandia cruise gathers Finnish folk music and dance lovers together for a 24-hour journey on the Baltic Sea. In January 2019 Simon Broughton got on the board.

A group of four women who each both sing and play the kantele and who write songs in a consistent and original style, Kardemimmit have their roots in the folk tradition but are not afraid to season their menu with whatever spices take their fancy. Few ensembles can boast having made music together from childhood through to turning professional. In recent years, Kardemimmit have been in demand from the USA to Japan.

"Each of the three female voices is strong in her own right, but blended together there seems no end to the variation in mood and colour they can create," describes Ton Maas in his review of the group's gig in Belgium.​

"Päivi Hirvonen approaches music with focus and attitude, but then lets it speak for itself. Her music-making is quite intimate but at times incorporates a lot of different layers, expanding herself into an orchestra or a choir."

"With Turmio Okra Playground have swept on to Finland’s folk music scene with a distinctive celebration of Finnish traditions and stories driven by captivating energy and passion and an obvious historical perspective."

The nature of folk music has always included the shameless borrowing of refreshing material from elsewhere – right now Baltic Finnish influences are rising to the top in Finland.

Have the legendary Värttinä produced their best ever album after over 30 years together? Viena, their thirteenth studio album, marks a return to their roots which grew out of the excitement of visits back to Karelia to hear, and be inspired by the last surviving runo singers.

The world music market has seen a boom in Celtic, African and Latin American music. Many people believe that it is the turn of the Nordic countries next.

A protégée of the Sibelius Academy Folk Music Department, the vocal ensemble 'MeNaiset' has delved deep into the music not only of the Finno-Ugrian peoples but of other nearby races as well. The important thing about this band of young women is not, however, their academic background but the joy they find in singing together.