TURKU LOVE is an outdoor concert planned to be held on the newly rebuilt Turku Market Square on 12 August 2023. For this event, the Turku Music Festival is partnered by the Turku Center association, City of Turku Attraction and Events, the children’s and youth choirs of Puolala School, and others.
The Turku Music Festival applied for this funding in order to be able, after two years of the pandemic and amidst global tensions, to bring Turku residents together in the city centre for a concert replicating the concept of the TV show SUOMI LOVE.
The concert opens with a sequence for the whole family (above all families with children), titled ‘Science questions in song’. Songwriter Suvi Isotalo wrote the music and lyrics for songs based on science questions by children and invited a range of leading artists and musicians to perform them. The resulting album was nominated for Album of the Year in the children’s music category at the Emma Awards, and Suvi Isotalo was named Rookie of the Year at the Jellonagaala. TURKU LOVE features music from this album, and the plan is for children’s and youth choir members from Puolala School to join the band on stage.
The second half of the concert is performed by Osmo Ikonen and Johanna Iivanainen and the Vantaa Pops Orchestra Ensemble from the TV Show Suomi Love, a programme designed to appeal to a Turku audience of all ages.
The purpose of this concert is to foster a spirit of communality and to bring joy to the city after two years of the pandemic, encouraging people to come together to enjoy music and culture. This follows from the broader strategy of the Turku Music Festival to improve the attractiveness of Turku and to revitalise the city centre: events and services are what brings a city centre alive! Turku is Finland’s oldest city and as such a bold pioneer; the Market Square, laid out after the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, has just been entirely rebuilt, and the concert is also intended to celebrate its reopening to the public. Culture is for everyone and the city centre is for everyone – Turku is a good place to live.
The concert forms part of the programme of the Turku Music Festival in 2023 and is organised in cooperation with Turku Center and City of Turku Attraction and Events.
The Turku Music Festival considers that this project is fully supportive of the goals of the Turku 2029 Foundation and promotes the attractiveness of the city en route to the grand celebration of the 800th anniversary of Turku in 2029.
We will have more news as our plans for summer 2023 take shape.
