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By Jasmina Schreck
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Friday, 25 December 2009 |
Wondering what to do in Oulu between Christmas and New Year? The Me! Me! Me! festival might just be the event for you. Finnish actor, dancer, and DJ Sami Henrik Haapala will be showcasing his current artistic work with a program of club events, a play, ‘action poetry,’ and film from December 26 to January 3.
Performances at the festival, striving after a ‘blending of art and pop cultures,’ will take place at Cultural Centre Valve, reggae bar Never Grow Old, and night club 45 Special.
The event will open with a Boxing Day Dance on December 26, starting with a ‘goddisco’ and “unusual rhythmic approaches to God and Christianity.” The rest of the evening will see Balkan beats, electrotango, Spanish funk, Mexican electro and even Russian and Karelian hiphop played in Never Grow Old, entrance free.
If theatre’s more your thing, Rääväsuu, a play produced, directed and performed by Haapala and based on Finnish rock, pop, rap and reggae texts is on at Cultural Centre Valve for 5/7€ on December 29 and 30 and January 3 at 19.00. The play aims to ‘show what happens when the most bare and simple form of pop music, a man with a guitar, is made even more bare.’
New dance music from Finland and the world is provided by by Boogalumbia! and Children of Boom on December 30 at 45 Special, entrance 3€. And those more into poetry than dance music are served by Scandinavian Action Poetry event, also on December 30 at 45 special.
The new year starts with a new club. Exactly what the newly established Kaltio Club –named after a cultural magazine from Oulu–is about remains a bit of a mystery, but what is certain is that the evening will start with a discussion about a topic led by Haapala and followed by music from a guest DJ, film director Mika Ronkainen (who directed Huutajat, a documentary about Oulu’s screaming men).
Haapala has also directed a film about the Oulu-based metal band Sentenced. The showing is on January 2 at Never Grow Old, entrance free.
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