28 Aug 2004

Night of the Arts, Helsingfors

Just a quick picture from the annual Night of the Arts in the Finnish capital, an event where artists, musicians and revelers take over the streets.

Despite the driving rain we went out to various jazz clubs and venues where spoken word, performance art, guerrilla ballet and street theater were taking place. I managed to convince quite a few Finns to talk to me in Swedish, an accomplishment worthy of acclaim if I do say so myself. The copious alcohol may have also played a role. Though all Finns study Swedish in school, I've found that most prefer speaking English to me (with the exception of the historic Swedish-speaking minority.) The Finland-Swedish dialect lacks the tonal accent found in Sweden, but preserves some older words and verb forms.

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