I’m leaving for the airport in a couple of hours. But the airport is not my final destination. I’m catching a flight from there to Helsinki, and from Helsinki I’ll connect with a flight to Tampere.
It is there where the Finland International Improvisation Festival takes place. I will be playing, participating in and leading workshops.
I love festivals. And improv. So the combination of the two is quite a tasty prospect. And in Finland no less!
A couple of weeks after Finland I will be part of the Slapdash Festival in London. I’m excited for that one too. It’s a great festival, and one I help organise and run, in a city I lived in until very recently. So I feel more intimately involved, and it is less much less exotic and foreign to me.
So for now, as I’m packing for my five nights, I also get to wonder: what the hell is it going to be like, this festival in Tampere.
I mean, obviously I know that Tampere has a borderline humid continental climate/subarctic climate and is home to the Näsinneula tower.
But what more can I discover about the city between the Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi lakes? Or is that question moot; will I be so consumed with the feast of improv that is lined up that I neglect to see even the delightful Moomin Museum?
I’m not sure the answers to these questions, but what I do know is that I’m excited!