This year was the eighth time we organised Tervasaari Jams, the legendary “almost-festival” in the centre of Helsinki.
This year we had 11 artists across two stages, representing just about every genre imaginable: From pop and rock to funk and reggae, as well as K-pop-inspired Brit alternative music, and everything in between and beyond. That’s always been one of my favourite things about Tervasaari Jams: there has never been just one sound, but everything can exist in harmony together.
This year’s event was special in many ways. For one, it was my first Tervasaari Jams not serving as the chairman of the organisation, at the same time, this gave me more mental capacity to add a new stage all together! And for another, we did it despite almost cancelling the event at the very last minute due to the forecast. Thats something we have never had to even consider before. Luckily, the team had nerves of steel, and we decided to face the rain, which, after one initial rainfall, never really materialised. We still got soaked setting up the rain covers. Truly an immaculate exercise in team building.
Well, Scope has been living and breathing fire for more than half a decade now, and during that time our path has intertwined with so many incredible people and artists. Some have stayed. Some have remained for a while. New faces continue to find their way into Scope all the time.
And that’s what makes Tervasaari Jams so fascinating to me.
Back where Scope was born all those years ago, we unknowingly created something that transcends both the people involved and time itself. What we do remains relevant because the need for genuine human connection is, if anything, even more precious now than when we started. Music and needs of cultural scene are also part of the equation, and will be. Until the basic income is norm the art scene has to survive in constant state of scarcity. As our society moves towards even more art-hostile mindset Scopes work is more important than ever. However I digress.
The generational and communal aspect of Tervasaari Jams has always intrigued me.
Most of the younger generation participating today, whether as performers or audience members, don’t necessarily know that the person sitting farther back in the amphitheatre, smiling, enjoying their evening, and sipping a craft beer was building or rocking the hell out of that very same main stage just a couple of years earlier in the fiery years of their youth.
I’ve been in Scope for so long that I personally recognise almost everyone who has ever passed through us in one way or another on their path in life. Seeing all those familiar faces return to Tervasaari, year after year, brings me immense joy.
They are the very reason I keep doing this.
Year after year.
Tervasaari Jams remains the place where the veterans of this precious movement those who have earned the right to simply enjoy the evening as well as the fresh, hungry, up-and-coming generation meet and share the same space. Sometimes knowingly. Sometimes unknowingly. Under the best possible summer weather and with the best possible music.
To me, it feels like a gentle, warm, knowing wink from life itself, recognising all the pathways and connections that exist simultaneously.
Thank you for being part of it in the past, in the present, and in the future.
See you all at Tervasaari next summer. ❤️
Writer is a main producer of the Tervasaari Jams and long time chairman of the scope association who recently became (mostly) just another producer in the community focusing on serving artists of the scene