Finnish festival expertise inspires in Hong Kong

One of Asia's largest festivals, Hong Kong Arts Festival has invited the Finnish cultural events collaboration forum Finland Festivals to be its partner in organizing the festival's annual symposium. The symposium, which has been named '5 Million People, 100 Festivals – the Experience of Finland' is held today, on March 12^th.

The Director of Hong Kong Arts Festival Tisa Ho has visited Finland twice and familiarized himself with several Finnish festivals. He considers Finland a great example of the application of a number of good practices in the festivals business, for which reason Finnish expertise is worth presenting also in Hong Kong.

– The high quality of Finnish festivals and the large number of visitors considering the country's small population is pretty impressive from our point of view. We want to develop the art scene of Hong Kong and I believe that the Finns have a lot of inspiration to share on this issue. The thriving of festivals in Finland must be part of a larger picture, since art and art education have been invested in ambitiously already for a long time. The outcome of this investment is reflected on many levels at the same time, tells Ho.

The symposium will be opened by the Executive Director of Finland Festivals, Kai Amberla. He will give a speech on the structure of festivals, economy and Finnish cultural politics on a larger scale. In addition to Amberla, other Finnish speakers present at the symposium include for instance the Director of Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Sari Rusanen, who will explain how a small village gathering became a world-famous chamber music festival.

http://artsfestivalplus.org