The adventurous music festival Odysseus will move to a new venue, the Cultural Factory Korjaamo, next summer, where the event will take place over two days on July 19th and 20th. New additions to the program include Širom, Olli Ahvenlahti New Quintet, Y-OTIS, Jonathan Bäckström Quartet, Dan Nicholls, and Pop Up Koma. Tickets for the event are available on Tiketti.
The Odysseus Festival, which has quickly become one of Helsinki's key summer music events, will be held for the first time at the Korjaamo Cultural Factory on July 19th and 20th, 2024. The event will take place in all of Korjaamo's indoor spaces and also on its atmospheric summer courtyard. New additions to the program include Olli Ahvenlahti and his band, who recently released a critically acclaimed new album, the Slovenian experimental folk band Širom, Otis Sandsjö's "liquid jazz" pioneering band Y-OTIS, bassist-composer Jonathan Bäckström's quartet, and keyboardist-producer Dan Nicholls' ambient jazz solo project. Formerly known as Koma Saxo and now under the name Post Koma, bassist-producer Petter Eldh and saxophonist Sandsjö will perform unique surprise gigs on Saturday, July 20th, with their new Pop Up Koma concept at the festival area. The Odysseus Festival program will be further complemented in the near future.
"The mission of the Odysseus Festival is to present new music in various forms, without hierarchy or classification," says the festival's artistic director Matti Nives. "We encounter music as it is, without dividing our artist guests into 'headliners' and 'others.' Many of our star guests might play a minor role elsewhere, but for us, this music is the main thing, and what we want to share with our visitors. Odysseus's moderate scale provides an excellent opportunity for music to be close to the audience. At the same time, we want to communicate that music outside the mainstream is not only an 'alternative' but an important matter in itself, and everyone is welcome to embark on a musical adventure to discover something new. The only requirement is curiosity."
The Odysseus Festival is organized by the Helsinki-based We Jazz, known for its record label, winter jazz festival, and Digelius record store. In its first years, the event has gained popularity among listeners thanks to its adventurous program and "human-sized" event environment. With the move to Korjaamo, Odysseus' capacity will remain the same, about a thousand visitors per day in 2024.
"The festival has a certain exclusivity and luxury, but it happily lacks elitism. Small-scale charm is appealing." – Rumba
"Odysseus Festival's programming is admirably non-hierarchical." – The Wire
Odysseus Festival
In Helsinki 19.–20.7.2024
Instagram: @odysseusfestival
#odysseus2024
Tickets: Tiketti
Announced performers and day schedule:
Fri 19.7.
AINON
Dan Nicholls (UK)
Heta Bilaletdin
Islaja
Janne Westerlund
Jonathan Bäckström Quartet (FI/SE)
Lost Girls (NO)
Olli Ahvenlahti New Quintet
Oren Ambarchi (AU)
Superposition
Varropas
Verneri Pohjola: Monkey Mind
Ville Leinonen
Willberg + Pekkola + Toivonen
Y-OTIS (SE/UK)
Sat 20.7.
Aino Juutilainen
Enji (MN)
Ensemble Nist-Nah (AU)
Ghosted (SE/AU)
Grande Mahogany
Hatis Noit (JP)
Horse Lords (US)
Juho Toivonen
KMRU (KE)
Laihonen & Salmi
Mikko Joensuu
Otto Willberg
Pop Up Koma (SE)
The Stance Brothers
Ustad Noor Bakhsh (PK)
Victor Herrero (ES)
Yam Ha
More performers will be announced later.
Širom © Uroš Abram