At Helsinki’s Flow Festival, Finnish Style Is on a Whole Other Latitude

There’s no camping necessary at Helsinki’s Flow Festival. The three-day event is held on the grounds of a decommissioned power plant in the middle of the city’s booming Sörnäinen neighborhood. That means you can take the tram or the metro to the festival, catch main stage acts like Zara Larsson and Turnstile from a seat in the VIP section housed in a decommissioned gasometer, stop in for a taste of rave magic with DJs like Honey Dijon on a dance floor in the shadow of a smokestack, and then head home to do it all over again the next day.

That also means the crowd, many local to Helsinki, often use the event as an excuse to let their innate fashion sense run wild. The country takes great pride in its art and design heritage—having given the world Marimekko’s joyous textiles, instantly recognizable Artek furniture, Arabia ceramics, Tom of Finland’s still-stirring erotica, and Tove Jansson’s beloved Moomin character, to name just a few contributions—which informs the local fashion sense.

“It's surprisingly brave. It's kind of clean, but with a bit of experimental elements,” says Milla, a young artist and Flow attendee of the city’s day-to-day fashion. Although she says many tend to keep their color schemes muted in regular life, a festival is a chance to amp it up. “In Finland, we think that at a festival, you are more free to express yourself.”

“I feel like nobody’s holding back at any kind of festival,” adds her friend Weke, a chef.

Americans, especially those glued to their TikTok FYPs, may be tempted to lump Helsinki in with the “Scandi girl” aesthetic, but Finland (which may be Nordic, but isn’t one of the three Scandinavian countries) sees its style a something distinct.

“You think about Stockholm, for example, it's much more homogeneous. It's very safe,” says Elina Siira, the creator of socially minded jewelry label Aida. “Here in Helsinki, people really want to experiment. Some uniqueness is much more appreciated.”

She also sees shades of Berlin in the city’s style. “Helsinki has a very high level of club culture. The style is affected by the cultural communities.”

Flow Festival is now a three-day affair with eight distinct stages and a program that not only includes a wide array of music (this year the lineup included everyone from Nick Cave to Cabaret Voltaire, and Rochelle Jordan to The Congos) but panel discussions, art installations, and, this year, an avant-garde fashion show put on by MASTERMINTTU. Still, it grew out of humble beginning from Helsinki’s own cultural communities.

“When Flow was founded in 2004, it was a small club event,” says the festival’s CEO Katariina Uusitupa. “The founders wanted to create an event that they wanted to participate in. So the values and what Flow feels like derives from those early times. They've been always interested in fashion and design.”

She also adds another more practical reason for Flow’s elevated festival style. “Most of the ground surface is asphalt. You can wear high heels if you want to, for example. Then when it rains, there's no mud.”

Perhaps what stood out most about the Finn’s festival style, was that while it may be expressive, it doesn’t feel performative. We only witnessed a single TikTok video being overtly made all weekend. And the style wasn’t limited to just the young.

“What I think that is cute at Flow, is that everybody can come there and they can express themselves,” says Siira. “Even though, yes, there are trendy and hot people, everybody can show their style the way they want.”