Finland’s biggest winter folklore festival Folklandia takes place at the beginning of each year. It’s a short 20 hour cruise with almost non-stop performances, so you can imagine one is very tired if you try to fit in as much as possible. With six different main stages and several pop-up performances along the corridors and lounges you can find all kinds of music and dance.

We had a break for a couple of years due to Covid and a little pup, but decided to take a break after New Years. As it often is, the cruise was sold out. I decided that this year we would prefer music and song over dance and planned our program accordingly. We walked around the ship from event to event and had a blast! Somehow, the last show I wanted to see was scheduled to be 2-3 am. And we were fast asleep by that time.

Having found my motivation for photography during autumn, I tried to find a new perspective on what to photograph. Usually I’ve shot colourful dresses and costumes, traditional headwear and shoes. Putting on a festival of this size, takes a lot of work and there are hundreds of people behind the scenes.

Even though there are some pictures of the people on stage here, my main focus was looking at the sound and lighting people, their work and gear. Some of these shots actually turned out pretty well.