FESTIVAL REPORT: Kosmos Festival 2023
Yet another festival report? Yes indeed! I’ve been having such an interesting and spectacular time at Kosmos Festival for the last 2 years that I decided that I wanted to shout them out officially this year. From the artwork to the atmosphere to the music, the whole festival is just a delight to experience. It isn’t trying to be too big, it isn’t trying too hard, it just knows what works and the people involved love it and do their best to make it work too. Regardless of who’s playing, this festival is worth attending, just because being there is wonderful. Same bat place, similar bat time, this year’s event took place over July 21-23rd, 2023.
We headed out to Närhilä in Ristiina on Friday the 21st before noon, in the hopes of arriving in time to meet with our friends and find a nice place to set up camp before the event buses arrived that bring in a large number of attendees. People get really creative in where they eventually find camping and we learned from the previous year that the earlier you come, the better—truly. We managed to find one space that was near perfect, which was right near the toilets in a rather low-energy area, so it was ideal for us, who like to have a little space to ourselves once in a while, as well as a group to join among the masses as needed.
One of the first things I love to do at Kosmos each year is to go wander around and see what everything looks like. The earlier, the better, when you arrive, because you can get some nice photos that aren’t full of people. That said, nighttime is when the whole place fully comes to life and it’s always full of people. However, the layout and spacing of stages makes for a busy but not too-crowded event. But I digress…
The festival area has a wide plethora of stages, which are truly more expertly done than many bigger festivals in Finland, designed and stylized the same way as last year (though we actually never wandered over to the Levitation Station this year). Yes, of course, the sound from the Vortex stage (which is one of the best places for atmosphere, even if it doesn’t tend to have my favorite music) carries everywhere, including the campsite and beach, but because the stages are set up as they are, there’s very little sound crossover from within the festival area itself, so 5+ stages can all be active 24/7. We could hear Vortex, Spacetime, and Asteroid at least from our campsite once in a while, so if you really needed to escape the endlessly thrumming bass, that might have required taking a longer walk and some earplugs (you could still hear it all the way down at the beach, esim). Also, love that the beach is a thing there! It’s not the busiest place either, so if the weather is nice and you’re feeling grody from a night of partying, the sauna and water are an amazing option. There’s also a little painted up bus coffee shop that hangs out there, so we were happy to enjoy some lettu [Finnish crepes] and tea/coffee during our walk down to the shore.
All of the acts that I knew of from the metal scene played at the Asteroid stage, like the wonderful Polymoon and their progressive touch, the brutal IA, relentless Kaleidobolt, as well as the Iron Maiden-y riffage of Green King! However, we had the most fun with our friends over at the Gravity stage, to artists like Hidria Spacefolk, Genki, and Mary Young. The most intense and memorable parts of the weekend though, were at our absolute favorite stage: Spacetime. It’s the most psychedelic and most danceable, generally suiting my tastes the best. It even has one of my favorite areas, because it has a big dance space and a chill-out dome, so you can take it easy or party, as per your needs. We definitely had a spectacular time watching Cosmic Touch and their dancer—that stage is really spectacular, especially the UV art inside the stage area, which makes it a bit of a shame that during the day, you can’t see all of the spectacular patterns. In fact, there seem to be no lights on the stage during the day, which is a bit strange because it makes it seem like there’s no one playing when there clearly is. We also caught Mycelium Mysteries at Spacetime and they were another easy highlight of the weekend!
Regarding the general management of the festival, these guys seem to be a very well-oiled machine at this point in time. The festival has been around a good while at this point, so it goes without saying that the organizers know what they’re doing. The vendors are all spectacular and relevant to the scene! It fills me with joy to see that—even though some people like to bring disposable things to wear for fun—there aren’t vendors who just sell plastic crap that will get left behind in the forest, but rather, witch shops and CBD stalls and massage booths, as well as tons of seminars. This is a hippy festival, after all, so (most) attendees are very respectful of what they do and what is left behind. I even found some amazing deals on really lovely clothing from the Fairy Factory, which felt like a big win because most hippy clothing is really expensive.
The food stalls were fantastic—Papa’s Smokery is always a winner and I had to take my partner to try out their brisket and various pulled meats, since he just got us a kamado grill this year and has been learning their craft. I had an amazing halloumi burger from Penalty Burger, while my partner said their veggie burger was also quite good. We also went every day to get momo [Tibetan dumplings] from Tibetan Street Kitchen, because they were the best snack-sized food we could find. It was nice to have options for different things, like a little home kitchen that also had lettu, as well as coffee and quesadillas, various questionable paellas and fried rices/noodles, and other things we didn’t get a chance to try. Nevertheless, we ate well and ended up leaving with most of our munching chip bags unopened, as we were pretty satisfied with what we got inside. After last year and hauling in a ton of food and camp-cooking equipment, we decided this year to just get our food from the festival area and even if it was more expensive, it was quality and we enjoyed it.
What’s even better, and what you don’t necessarily get at metal festivals (or any festivals that aren’t full of hippies in Finland, anyways), is that everyone is so, so, so friendly. I had a fun little interaction where I had posted an article of hippy clothing that I had bought from Cyber Shop at Kosmos 2022 for sale on the local B/S/T website and mentioned that it was possible to pick it up at the festival. A fellow decided to take me up on that, was kind enough to offer me to pay a little extra to wash it and package it since it came from a cat house and he has allergies, and we met up and not only was he very pleasant, but his friend rushed up to me, greeted me very kindly, told me I was beautiful, and asked if she could give me a hug. I cannot begin to tell you what an insane feeling that is after having lived in Finland for nearly 15 years, where random human interaction is essentially nonexistent. It’s magical.
If I have only one major complaint for the festival, it’s that they either need more toilets, or they need to have the trucks show up at least once during the day as well (which happens at Nummirock because shit just—quite literally—gets scary if they don’t come regularly). I assure you there is space for another row of toilets back-to-back with the set of toilets just outside the festival area. I recall going to the toilet late one night and finding the mound was… getting close to breeching the rim of the porta-potty. When this happens, you just start getting people going in the woods, which gets near to where people are sleeping… there was even some sort of awful legend going around the place of a poop tent somewhere in the woods. To whoever had to deal with that… I’m truly and deeply sorry. But proper toilets and sanitation are pretty key to keeping the forests clean, so if there’s any request, it’s just that they keep that in mind for the future.
Actually, there is a second major issue regarding health and safety, which is the fact that there is only one water point in the festival area. I think there is enough space over by the First Aid and Security area that they could put a few more toilets there, as well as a second water point. For a festival that has attendees in various states of party-mode for 3+ days, water is absolutely key and if you’re in a crisis and can’t find your way to the Kotilo or the campsite, water might be your one saving grace, and waiting 30+ minutes in the queue is a pretty devastating amount of time if you’re feeling out of your mind. Of course, there is another water truck outside the festival area in the campground, but you can’t take water in with you (which is understandable, of course), meaning it’s really hard to get water once you’re inside when there’s only one place to get it free.
Toilet and water complaints aside, all-in-all, Kosmos 2023 was a spectacular event. I love seeing Riika Arte’s UV artwork anytime (I have one of her prints on my wall from last year’s Helsinki Psych Fest), the firedancers of Tuliryhmä Roihu [trans: firegroup blaze] were as wonderful as ever (I even had a nice opportunity to talk to their sword-dancing samurai after the final show and was pleased to find him very friendly), the dreamcatchers at the Oasis are beautiful and tranquil… I found myself on both Friday and Saturday night watching the fire dancers and feeling like I was at peace again, which I haven’t felt lately for a multitude of reasons. So thank you to Kosmos Festival and everyone who is a part of it. I wish this space existed all year round!
