Ilosaarirock Festival ended hot and heavy

Last weekend's Ilosaarirock festival in Joensuu ended with Alice in Chains. The festival had a total of 52 000 guests over the sunny weekend. According to the local authorities, the festival also had a hangaround crowd of some 10 000 people outside the festival grounds. Despite the huge turnout the festival was exceptionally peaceful, there were no police reports from the actual festival site. The fire and rescue services also had an uneventful weekend with calls below the average.

On top of the festival audience, there were also 1927 volunteers working on the festival. Joensuun Popmuusikot, the organization behind Ilosaarirock, received nearly 2500 volunteer applications.

– At times it felt like volunteer work wasn't popular anymore, especially among young people. Which made it exceptionally awesome to receive such a huge amount of volunteer applications. All the volunteers also did an amazing job with a great attitude that rubbed on to the festival crowd, rejoiced Tuula Korpi, chairperson of the board of Joensuun Popmuusikot.

Especially the female artists gathered huge crowds. Ellie Goulding, Haim, Sanni, Jenni Vartiainen and Haloo Helsinki attracted younger people and there were many teenagers and young families in the audiences. One of the most anticipated shows of the weekend was Portishead who took to the stage for the first time in Finland. The band enjoyed Joensuu so much that Portishead made a donation to the Ilosaarirock environmental protection fund, benefiting the endangered landlocked salmon.

– The band had heard that customers could make donations while buying tickets and aid in protecting the salmon, and wanted to participate. It's rarely the artists who push their money on us, usually it's the other way around. We'll make sure the money goes to the right place, laughs Korpi.

Ilosaarirock has been organised in Joensuu since 1971. The managing party behind the festival is Joensuun Popmuusikot ry, a nonprofit live music promotion organisation.

Next Ilosaarirock is held on 17. – 19.7.2015. Twoday tickets, which cost 85 euros, are released to sale today.

Press photos at www.ilosaarirock.fi/2014/english/media

For more information visit: www.ilosaarirock.fi

For interviews contact:
Executive director Markku Pyykkönen, tel. +358503549068, if.kcoriraasoli@ukkram
PR officer Petri Varis, tel. +358442936889, if.kcoriraasoli@irtep

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