Newcomers may be forgiven for thinking that Oulu is a sleepy quiet city. It’s not without some excitement for youngsters though: last year, Oulu’s club group Fed Ry were nominated for the coveted prize of the ‘Coolest People in Oulu’. The award was later changed to the ‘Best Group in Oulu’ which they won. I caught up with Sebastian and Markku (Max Dee) from Fed Ry to find out more about the scene.

ClubZone first started as an internet radio station back in 1999, run by the DJs Soppa and RedJack. In 2003 the two DJs were joined by local techno musician Sebastian and DJ Max Dee to form the Fed Ry group, hoping to run regular nights in Oulu and the north of Finland. They decided then to use ClubZone as a regular dance night in Oulu with the Fed Ry DJs as Resident DJs, that is, DJs who perform regularly. It was hard work at first, but after a while the events started to pick up, so that in the 2006 season they were bringing in between 300 and 600 clubbers to each event.

“It’s a huge amount of time we spend preparing nights,” Sebastian told me. “Our work is often underestimated.” The biggest thing for events like this is often the planning.
“The first thing is thinking of who we want to play at the event,” Markku says. “Then there’s arranging transportation for the artists.” ClubZone have been able to attract some big name DJs, including Orkidea from Helsinki, amongst others. This can be hard work in itself, but Fed Ry is already well known in the north of Finland so attracting the DJs is possible. “Usually they are pleased to come here”, says Markku.
“Most of the DJs are eager to work for us,” adds Sebastian. “Time schedules are always the hardest part, since the top DJs are used to having their calendars filled for a few months in advance”.
Markku: “There’s always quite a lot of working things out with the management, but filling in tens of papers we will get them here.” After that there is producing the flyers and the posters and the promotion of the event, which starts at least one month beforehand. Finally on the day there is setting up the decorations and the lighting - quite a lot of work - not to mention running the actual event itself. But the team aren’t complaining. “I’m enjoying it, and I think the rest of the crew are also,” Sebastian says.

Plans for the future of Fed Ry are flexible at the moment. In the coming year, they hope to run 6 or 7 of the ClubZone events, with a few smaller events and a couple of larger parties - such as last year’s Northern e-Motion at Kuusisaari - in between. The guys were offered a weekly night for the ClubZone event which they turned down: you can have too much of a good thing. “A weekly night is one of the things that would kill the passion and excitement” Sebastian thinks.

The club scene in Oulu isn’t limited to just one group, with there being a few in the city. It’s all very friendly though, and the groups keep in touch so that there aren’t any clashes between them. “Oulu is pretty small town so there are only few groups. I think that provides a good spirit between the groups. We inform other groups when we're arranging parties and they do the same,” Sebastian says.
But it’s more important than just being friends: as Markku explains, “we are friends with them and try not to rival them, since everybody does it for the love of music not for making money.”

So how did they feel about getting the award? “It was good to get the award, and I was a bit surprised by it,” Markku says. “It doesn’t matter if it was the coolest or the best”.
“Coolest are the coolest, but we’re the best - and they’re both superlatives,” Sebastian says. “I think they changed the title after seeing the picture of us. Of course, it’s an awesome thing to get for all the hard work you’ve done.”

Fed Ry is run for the love of the music and not for the money - the ‘Ry’ denotes that it is a non-profit organisation. For their next event they have Miika Kuima, one of Finland’s biggest DJs. It’s on the 9th of February at the Radisson SAS Hotel, starting at 10pm.