The most important weekend of the year
If you want to understand Finland, watch what happens at Midsummer. Around the summer solstice, in late June, the country does something remarkable: the cities empty out almost completely. Helsinki's streets fall quiet, shops close early on Midsummer Eve, and hundreds of thousands of cars stream towards the lakeshores. Juhannus is the holiest holiday of the Finnish summer — a celebration held not in town but at the mökki, the summer cottage, by the water with family and friends. Uniquely, the Finnish flag flies all through the night, because at Midsummer the night never really gets dark.
Cottage, sauna, bonfire
Finland has about half a million summer cottages — in practice, every other family has access to one. The Midsummer formula has been refined over generations: long, unhurried rounds of sauna, swims in the lake between them, sausages and new potatoes on the grill, and as the evening dims — insofar as it dims at all — a kokko bonfire is lit on the shore. Great Midsummer bonfires blaze all over the country, and people gather around them to sing and watch the flames. For a visitor, the best way in is to rent a cottage of your own, or head to a public celebration such as the traditional festivities on Seurasaari island in Helsinki.
The nightless night
The magic of Midsummer is built on light. In southern Finland the June sun dips below the horizon for only a few hours and the sky never properly darkens — these are the white nights. North of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi or Utsjoki, the sun does not set at all for weeks on end: the midnight sun shines in full at two in the morning. It scrambles your body clock in the most delightful way — you may well find yourself fishing off a jetty in the middle of the night. Pack an eye mask all the same; not every cottage has blackout curtains.
A summer of festivals
The Finnish summer is also festival season, and the line-up is astonishing for a country this size.
- Ruisrock in Turku is one of Europe's oldest rock festivals, held since 1970 on the island of Ruissalo by the sea.
- Flow Festival takes over the old Suvilahti power plant in Helsinki each August — international headliners, urban culture and sharp design in an industrial setting.
- Savonlinna Opera Festival is staged inside the walls of the medieval Olavinlinna castle — opera in a lake landscape you will not forget.
Tickets for the big events sell out months in advance, so move early.
Berries, mushrooms and everyman's rights
From July onwards the forests fill with bilberries, followed in late summer by lingonberries, raspberries and mushrooms. Thanks to Finland's everyman's rights you may pick berries and mushrooms freely almost anywhere — one of the most authentically Finnish experiences there is, and it costs nothing. Summer is also prime season for kayaking and cycling; the lakeland routes and the archipelago roads are at their best. In the north, be ready for mosquitoes — repellent is mandatory kit in Lapland in July.
Practical notes
Renting a cottage online is easy, but the Midsummer weekend gets booked months ahead. A basic lakeside cottage with a sauna typically costs 400–800 euros per week, or 200–500 euros for a peak-season weekend; luxury villas run well over a thousand. Getting around cottage country without a car is difficult, so a rental car is worth it — petrol costs roughly 1.80–2.00 euros per litre. Remember that on Midsummer Eve nearly all shops and restaurants close early and on Midsummer Day the country effectively shuts down: do your food shopping by Thursday. And if a Finn invites you to their cottage — say yes. It is the greatest compliment this country can pay you.