Planning a trip to Tampere during one of the many festivals? What are the must-see locations in the third largest city in Finland? We wisited Tampere during the summer time for the Tampere Theater festival, and our experience has left us wanting to come back, as even 5 days where not enough in this wonderful Finnish gem nestled between lakes!

Practical tips on visiting Tampere

Flights: airBaltic has good connections to Tampere via Riga

Accomodation: Lapland Hotels Tampere (the hotel truly had everything one might need, including a very good breakfast and sauna with a view to the rooftops!)

Getting around: Tampere has a very good public transport system, and you can pay for the rides using your regular credit card!

Tours: want to learn more about the city or explore nearby towns? Book a tour in Tampere!

Arriving to Tampere

Flight to Tampere from Riga is one of the last ones on that day, and when we depart, the airport is empty. We land in Tampere Airport after 50 minutes, where the baggage claim hall is still decorated with a hockey championship advertising poster. After collecting our luggage, we head outside to meet our pre-booked taxi driver and in short fifteen minutes, we are at the hotel and ready to go to bed!

Our trip’s goal is to attend several performances of the 54th Tampere Theatre Festival, but the first day at the destination is for “doing nothing.” However, doing nothing doesn’t really happen, because the temptation to explore the city is great – I have been here once before on a business trip, but no free time, so very eager to explore more!

We start the “doing nothing” day with breakfast, which is pleasantly surprising with the “essence” of Finnishness – the hotel has paid attention to both the decor and the food. On each table there is a pine cone and needles, and sprigs of conifers are also on the ice next to the food. The dishes also feature Lapland cheese, cloudberry jam, a wide selection of fish, and small pieces of local desserts – so you can taste them, but they won’t be wasted if you don’t like them. And of course, the inevitable blueberry juice.

We continue the blueberry theme as soon as we leave the hotel and see an ice cream stand. Blueberry ice cream has remained in my memory as especially delicious. We get to enjoy the ice cream while standing under the store awning, because it starts to rain suddenly. However, it passes just as quickly, and soon the sky is blue again, dotted with small clouds. Opposite the ice cream vendor is a small market stall, and on it, mostly bowls of cloudberries, which cost 20 euros per kilogram. We later learn from Susanna Koskimaa, an employee of the Festival Association (Pirkanmaan festivaalit), that cloudberries are like mushrooms – people keep quiet about their growing locations, and always answer questions about the yield this year with “it’s a bad year on our side!”.

Sightseeing in Tampere

Tampere, a city with a population of just under 250,000, is located between the lakes of Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, with the Tammerkoski River running between them. It is thanks to this river that Tampere, known as the “Northern Manchester,” became an industrial center in the 19th century. The industrial era is the city’s architectural calling card: red-brick buildings, now silent chimneys, and a hydroelectric power plant that is still in operation. As another Festival Association employee, Tiina Kuusisto, tells us later, only one factory remains in these historical buildings in the city center, producing cardboard.

The first thing that catches your eye in the city is the abundance of greenery. There are boxes of petunias on the banks of the river, as well as on a small bridge across the river directly next to the factory. Next to it, “towers” of petunias in different colors. Next to the waterfall, a bed with red pots, and then, in the bright, healthy grass, a seagull dances a rain dance – flapping its feet quickly and rhythmically on the ground, which gives the impression to the worms living there that it is raining and they need to come out. Not only seagulls, but also crows, can be heard well, announcing their presence throughout the city. So, Tampere sounds like crows and smells like flowers!.

Soaking in the impressions, we walk around the city. We have heard that Tampere Market Hall is worth a visit. It was opened in 1901 and is the largest indoor market in the Nordic countries. I expected it to be similar to what I saw in Helsinki, but it is more reminiscent of “Mercado San Miguel” in Madrid, where you can buy something to eat in countless stalls, and also take it with you to go. The number of stalls is probably smaller here than in Spain, and there are fewer people, but watching people drinking coffee or eating noodles, it seems that they feel cozy here. We walk past the local bread stalls – Karelian pies, buns with boiled cream, and a whole stall with gluten-free cakes. I am most inspired by the cheese stand, which has an incredibly wide selection and several posters on the wall with a breakdown of French cheeses and regions. I only recognize a few, but after what I saw, I just feel like I need to go on a cheese tour of France!

Evening walks, Cathedral, fire depot, “Werstas” museum and fire show

After spending half a day walking around the city, it is time for our first meeting, dinner at the Telakka restaurant, where, among other things, theater performances take place several times a year. Here we meet the other press trip visitors – a journalist couple from Luxembourg, a gentleman who writes about travel from Austria, a theater journalist from the UK, a representative of a Danish tourism magazine, and an Estonian. Some have their first theater performances on the same evening, so people come and go. The organizers have ordered us each a pike burger, which we then eat while getting to know each other and finding out what each one does and how they got to Tampere. Us from Riga are in a privileged position, because the journey has taken the least amount of time!

Although we had not planned to go anywhere on the first evening, it turns out that “Nocturnal happening” is taking place on this day, when events take place all over the city during the day, but especially in the evening. Anyone can apply for their own event, most of them are free, and with the help of the Festival Association staff, we decide what might be worth seeing. First, we literally run to Tampere Cathedral to make it to a classical music concert. Seeli Toivio (cello) and Pauliina Hyry (organ) fill the cathedral with music for an hour. While we listen to the music, we also observe Hugo Simberg’s frescoes in the cathedral. They were scandalous at the time of their creation, as they were considered to be symbols of sin and corruption. The concert is punctual – it starts on time, and also ends on time, lasting exactly one hour. Later, we discuss this with the Festival Association staff, that punctuality is important in everything around here. Especially in such events, where people have several places and performances to attend during the evening!

We continue walking around the city in the direction of the next performance. First, we admire the city’s fire station, built in 1908 in the late Art Nouveau style, and this is one of the few stone fire stations in all of Europe, unique both from a functional and aesthetic point of view. Firefighters once watched the surrounding wooden city from the tower of the fire station, which is 22 meters high. The building was designed by one of the most successful architects of the time, Wivi Lönn. Then, along the way, we stop at the Werstas, or Finnish Labor Museum. There are also several performances taking place there, but there are a lot of interested people, and it is not easy to squeeze to the front. We are more interested in the steam engine, which is still in its original premises, as this was once the Finlayson textile factory, founded by Scotsman James Finlayson in 1820. The former largest steam engine in Finland was used from 1900. The engine cylinder pair was named after the wives of the main shareholders – Helena and Maria, and is still clearly written on each of them. It is interesting that in this factory, in the Plevna house, where production took place, it was the first building in the Nordic countries and the Russian Empire (in which Finland was then part) where electric lighting was installed. Thomas Edison’s bulbs were first used here on March 15, 1882.

In the museum, we quickly rush through the other exhibition halls, the art part of the complex is planned for us the next day, but we get acquainted with the Werstas exhibits about Finnish industrialization, hunger, and also the 90th exhibit, which leaves a strange feeling in the chest – to hear melodies and see posters that bring back great memories, but also to realize that my childhood is now in museum exhibits.

Finally, it is time to go to the last show of the evening, “Flamma”, which is a fire acrobatics show and is the most popular performance of “Nocturnal happening”. When we arrive, the first enthusiasts and the first acrobats have already gathered. With each passing moment, it gets darker and the lit rings, head-mounted candlesticks, whips, and swords stand out against the cloudy, blue sky. More and more visitors are arriving, as well as mosquitoes, and after spending a while here, we decide to go further to capture the illuminated factory buildings at night. We walk past the Vapriikki museum center, which houses about 10 exhibits, including the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame and the Postal Museum. Outside, there is a glassed-in locomotive. In the evening hours, it is noticeable that the city smells of petunias. These warm summer nights!

Art in Finlayson and Pispala sights

We start the next day with a walk around the city. Fortunately, the sights do not overlap. We start the day in Hämeenpuisto Park, past the Milavida Museum, from which we move on at a brisk pace to the factory district.

In the Finlayson complex, we appreciate contemporary art, in both photographs, glass, and paintings, in which the basic material is created with the help of artificial intelligence, and the artist Sami Lukkarinen then paints pixel-style portraits of people and horses. We also visit a printmaking workshop, where printmaking works are created based on the samples made by artists. They show us the beginning of this process and tell us about the art center that was created in a former factory. The view from the window is calming – the water of the river swirls and there is always movement behind the window. There are residential houses in several places by the river, but they are very successfully integrated into the industrial style and fit into the cityscape.

Then, together with the curator of the art center, Katja Villemonteix, we go to her home district Pispala, which is the most hipster place in already hipster Tampere and is located less than three kilometers from the center. Once upon a time, the houses built on the esker were inhabited by the poorest factory workers, because there were no rules and restrictions here. You could draw a house plan on a matchbox and start building it. Now the situation has changed. In response to a question from the Luxembourg journalists about the price of a small two-story house that is being renovated, Tuomas Paloniemi, an employee of the city’s tourism promotion bureau, answers that it is most likely worth a million. He himself dreams of living here. Many people live here for generations, including Katja. Being a Pispalite, she shows us the bullet factory tower, which had to be built so high because the bullets cool down as they fall through the long pipe. She says that when the tower was being renovated and temporarily removed, Pispala seemed empty. The tower is an obligatory part of the landscape! Katja also shows boxes at the corners of the streets – if someone no longer needs things, they are put out and people can take, for example, boots, clothes, or apples in the fall.

After passing by picturesque lakes on both sides, we go to Tahmela villa, a historic building that the Pispalites wanted to preserve. Pispala is a town of societies, because if someone doesn’t like something, an society is founded to defend the usual order. The municipality wants to eliminate the bus? An association that achieves it. Sell Tahmela villa, knowing that it will be demolished? A society is founded that develops a plan to raise the 30,000 euros needed for its maintenance each year. Now, there is the opportunity to have lunch, rent rooms for an artist’s studio, read a book in the children’s library, and go to the sauna.

True Finnish sauna

We will also go to the sauna. Some participants have shows to attend at this time, but we don’t want to miss the Finnish sauna experience, because there are about 3 million saunas in Finland for its 5.5 million inhabitants! We are greeted by the sauna healer/host Siiri, who will take us on a more ethnic sauna experience than even the locals are used to. If you want to book such a service, it is possible on this website.

At first, we go to the new, small sauna, with which Siiri greets us and tells us that the sauna spirit is also with us. However, the sauna turns out to be not warm enough for her taste, and we also feel a bit chilly, and we still go to the large sauna, where it is just under 80 degrees Celsius. Siiri sings sauna songs for us, which are written on wooden slats. Then, she lightly massages us with sauna brooms. It is said that it is worth using brooms only while sitting on the upper shelf, otherwise the aromatherapy effect is not good enough and it is also not as pleasant.

First, we get rowan brooms. Then it is the turn of aspen, then aspen with peppermint and yarrow, and finally, the juniper broom, which, unlike the others, is held in hot water and is said to be directly for nerve stimulation. At the end of the sauna, we sit with our noses in the brooms while Siiri sings. Between the different sauna broom treatments, people use the opportunity to cool off in the lake, but I still find the water a bit too cold. By the time I get there by the stairs, wrapped in a “Finlayson” cotton and linen towel, like a denim towel, I am already cold. Siiri says that you should stay in the sauna a little longer than it feels comfortable to be effective.

After the sauna, drinking raspberry lemonade on the porch, I feel like melted ice cream. Idyllic. Time passes differently at Tahmela Villa, because a passer-by had just come in and asked, is it Saturday already? For now, it’s only Friday. Tina and her colleague Joanna Piirainen decide that if there is no need to go to the hotel to change, we will stay here for a while before going to dinner. So we do. It’s nice to sit in silence by the villa, listening to the rustling of the leaves on the trees.

Dinner and concert

After that, we go to Kumma Bar for dinner. This time, there are a variety of dishes on the menu: bao buns with tofu cheese, hard tacos with avocado, and Gangnam-style chicken. I ask Tuomas about their restaurant culture. Are there any “tourist traps” to avoid in Tampere? Tuomas is initially confused. All of their restaurants are oriented towards the local market, because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to survive! Of course, there are better and worse places, but the businesses are open to serve the local customers, as without them, noone can make it.

In the evening, it’s time for the first performance of the Theatre Festival. We’re going to a small concert, with only about 200 locals, “Marzi Nyman plays Jimi Hendrix.” Our seats are in the balcony, already with prepared snacks. I watch the speakers with concern, which are right next to my head. As the concert begins, my concerns are unfounded – the sound quality is excellent. You can hear it perfectly, but it’s not overwhelming. The audience is open, alive, and engaged. The musician is charismatic, and his supporting team is too. Niko Kumpuvaara’s accordion solo especially catches my heart, which is a combination I’ve never heard before. I learn that there is such a thing as a digital accordion.

Lake Cruise

After the evening performances and concerts, the next day starts slowly, lazily, and late. We only leave the hotel shortly before noon, after having a late breakfast. We set off from the Laukontori harbor (where there is even a sauna in the harbor!) on a two-hour cruise on the lake, during which there is a short stop on the Viikinsaari island. In the summer, there is a theater, a restaurant, and of course, a sauna there. When I ask Tina about why the theater is there in the summer, she tells me that there are many amateur groups in Finland that stage a few performances a year, and in the summer, it is their opportunity to perform. Summer theaters are, however, under the open sky and are subject to the weather.

After the boat trip, we do buy a box of strawberries at the market in the harbor. Tuomass told us the previous evening that they are the best in the world in Finland. In Finland, they say that everything that grows under the feet is the best in the world, because in Finland, the days are very long in the summer, and therefore they can absorb the sunlight. That’s why strawberries are supposed to be so sweet. Indeed, they are delicious and sweet, and we eat the entire box there, as we walk towards the hotel. When we stop at the shopping center to wash our hands, we see a sign that says “Sauna.” Of course, how can we do without it! Even in the store, it is a necessity!

Before preparing for the evening performances, we take a short walk through the city, past the Orthodox Cathedral, which rings the bells, and a young couple descends the church steps, their guests blowing soap bubbles. We look at the Nokia Arena, which looks to be completely empty apart from children’s ice skating lessons going on. When we are almost at the hotel, we remember Tina’s words about the Philharmonic Orchestra performance in the evening – a stage has been set up in the park next to the Tampere Music Hall and the orchestra is rehearsing. In the evening, there will be a free concert, which is one of the most popular during the Theater Festival. This year, there will be works by well-known Finnish composers, as well as music from world films, such as the theme from the James Bond films.

While we are getting ready for the evening, the concert has also started, and we can hear it well through the hotel window. When we go to our evening performance at the Tampere Hall, the crowd of spectators around the venue is impressive. People have come with picnic blankets, their own chairs, even tables, and have settled in comfortably. The organizers have taken care of screens so that those who cannot see the main stage can still follow along. It is interesting that the stage for the event is only dismantled the next day, during the day, and none of the residents of the surrounding houses are disturbed at night by the noise caused by the metal pipes hitting each other when the stage is dismantled.

Circus show at the Tampere Hall

Circus? During theater week? It turns out, it can be! In the booklet for the Tampere Theater Festival, the Guinean circus “Baoab” show “Yé!” (translated as “Water”) is on the first page. This is the first time I have come across a circus show with such a developed story. It is about water, resources, and the future environment.

In the Tampere Hall, which can accommodate 2,000 people, we all sit on the edge of our seats, captivated by what is happening on stage. Minimal soundtrack, with individual participant calls. Minimal decor, just crumpled plastic bottles and a few full ones. They use both the clinking of bottles and the effect of absolute silence, when I hear the whispers of a little girl sitting a few rows behind me to her mother.

The acrobats wear neutral clothes, the kind you might see someone wearing on the street. On stage, only a minimum of light to highlight the important things. Human bodies and their maximum limits, pyramids of them and jumps, hip-hop elements, modern circus meeting African cultural elements. A guy who is so flexible that it seems like his body is made of plasticine. The rest of the troupe, which performs the show so easily, so lightly, that it seems – anyone could do it, because from the outside it looks so simple!

After the show, the troupe is greeted with standing ovations and absolute excitement from the audience. They return to the stage again. Then, when the show is over, and people slowly flow out of the hall, I watch as one of the members runs out for a moment to film the audience. They have also felt the audience’s involvement tonight!

Dinner at the restaurant “Apaja”

After the circus show, our last joint activity together is to go to the restaurant “Apaja”, which is located in a former farmstead house. On the way, we see a mobile sauna house. All that is missing is a flying sauna now!

The restaurant is tiny and zocy, and the rooms are as they were during the olden days. On the tables are candleholders-bottles, covered in wax, and here we are greeted by a five-course menu, accompanied by commentary from the the waitress Riia.

She is a bit strict when she starts telling us what to expect in each course, and she expects silence, calling out to those who are still talking. Then, in a slow, deep voice, she tells us why the food is so special, how it is prepared, and all the ingredients that are in it.

One of the dinner guests is allergic to one of the products, so she is served the dish with mushrooms instead. Riia says: “I asked the chef what he did with those mushrooms, and he said – I loved them!”

The tasting menu is impressive, but Riia plays the main role in this theatrical performance. We would be happy to eat anything she serves, even if it weren’t “an oat flour-made horn of waffle with seasonal berries and lemon sorbet”.

The show: What it means to be resident of Tampere?

We take a small detour to the Tampere railway station, where a woman is performing a 33-hour performance about what it means to be a Tampere resident. Her home here is divided between three shop windows. In one window, a TV is on with a Finnish dating show. In one window, there is an improvised bedroom, and in the third window, a kitchen. It is clear that the young woman has been working in the kitchen, as there are strange-looking desserts on the table that anyone can help themselves to. She moves from room to room every two hours. Passers-by watch what is happening, especially many young people. In the first evening, the railway station, which we only saw only homeless people in, is now bustling with life. A train to Helsinki arrives, but these people do not stay for the exhibition. Behind the sofas, I notice another distinctly Finnish thing – an empty small Koskenkorva “Salmiakki” bottle. Liquorice is respected here, in all its forms!

The Moomin museum

On our last day in Tampere, we have the day to ourselves again, this time without the plan “to do nothing,” because we just can’t do that! Our first stop is the Moomin Museum, which is located right next to the Tampere Hall.

My expectations for the museum are not particularly high, I don’t even know why. Is it because I haven’t heard much about the Moomins since childhood, when my parents read them to me? But the museum is surprising, in a good way. The exhibits, illuminated in the dark, allow you to take a look not only at Tove Jansson’s Moomins, but also at her own world. Each visitor is given a museum guide, which tells more about each of her 13 Moomin books, the related exhibits, and what happened in her own life. I see emotions on the faces of the Moomins that I had not noticed in them as a child. I learn about elements of the story that are aimed at parents, not children who are read them to. Both the author’s own and other artists’ installations really allow you to feel what it means to be in Moominland!

Afternoon tea at “Relove”

After the Moomin museum, we walk to the local shopping center “Stockmann”, where there is a cafe and a thrift store on the top floor. Second hand clothing stores are popular in Tampere, and we have been recommended the best shops by the tourism promotion association and have come across them ourselves in the city.

This time, we come here to have afternoon tea, which I usually enjoy in fine hotels abroad. Although the offer is not quite according to the afternoon tea rules, rather an improvisation on the theme, the decoration is beautiful, and the place is too. The amount of sweets is so great that I still take them with me in a box and drop them off at the hotel along the way. Everywhere we go, we either walk or use the publis transport. Public transport in Tampere is easy to understand, runs frequently, and is clean.

Hatanpää arboretum

The day is overcast, but we still decide to go to the Hatanpää arboretum, where the roses are in bloom right now. Red and so full of flowers that you can’t see the leaves. Pink, and it smells so sweet! Finally, a variety that is so lilac that it is close to blue. Seems many people had the same idea, because the rose garden is full of people.

We go on, past the Canada geese, which become a little nervous when a two-year-old starts running towards them, and past many dogs that their owners have brought for a walk. We see another landscaped area, where there are thousands of bumblebees in the echinaceas and goldenrod. If they move quickly from flower to flower in the yellow flowers, they remain as if stunned in the echinacea, many choosing to rest on flowers the size of half a palm.

We walk through the park, also noticing a moored floating sauna. They move across the lake, with chimneys smoking, this one is on the shore, the sauna pleasures are probably coming to an end, as a group of young people are sitting in the grass, wrapped in towels.

Nasinneula tower

We only had one more sight left, the Nasinneula observation tower, which is the second tallest in the Nordic countries at 168 meters. It is located next to another “second” – the Särkänniemi amusement park, the second largest in Finland. First, we walk around the harbor opposite the park which is very calm on this day.

Finally, we go up the tower. The day is overcast, so we don’t have any high hopes, but at least it’s clear that we can see quite well in the distance. There aren’t too many visitors in the tower, and even fewer use the services of the rotating platform restaurant on the top floor, which many people write in reviews that “you don’t have to eat, you can just come for coffee.” We don’t stay for coffee, but return to the hotel.

It’s time for our last Finnish sauna visit, this time at the hotel. Only the flying sauna is left, but this will be close enough, on the top floor of the hotel, with a view of the balconies, roofs, and the seagulls sitting on them. The saunas are separate for men and women. Siiri told us that she recommends going to the sauna naked, but we, in the company of strangers, stayed in our swimsuits. In this sauna, I don’t get to see how others do it, because I’m the only visitor. The sun has already set and I’m looking out the sauna window at the sky, which doesn’t seem to get any darker. Only an hour’s flight away, but night falls here so much later!

The way home

The next morning we wake up really early. The check in window only opens about an hour before the flight, and the security, even later. Everyone around us speaks Finnish, passengers seem to be using Riga airport as a transit hub. I notice a couple people grabbing their morning coffee. Finland is the top consumer of coffee per capita in the world, so not surprisingly, we bring coffee home as souvenirs!

In just a few days we have managed to see both Tampere and the Theater festival. Even 5 nights were not enough in this beautiful city, and so many more places we wanted to see! Who knows, perhaps, next time we will visit again? Tampere Theater festival will take place between August 5th and 11th in 2024!

This article wouldn’t have been possible without the support from Tampere Theater association (Pirkanmaan festivaalit) and Visit Tampere! All opinions are our own.